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Protecting Our Most Vital Assets--Our Genome and Our Environment: The 50-Year Legacy of EMGS
Citation:
Demarini, D. Protecting Our Most Vital Assets--Our Genome and Our Environment: The 50-Year Legacy of EMGS. Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society, Washington, District Of Columbia, September 18 - 23, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
This talk is for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society. Among many things, this talk will describe the critical role that this society played in helping the U.S. EPA implement the first TSCA in the early 1980s and the development of the genotoxicity test battery that was adopted by the U.S. EPA in the 1970s for approval for pesticides.
Description:
A mutagenesis moonshot addressing the integrity of our genome and environment was launched just four months before astronauts were launched to the moon. The impetus for the former included the discovery that X-rays (Herman Muller, 1927) and chemicals (starting with Charlotte Auerbach in 1942) were germ-cell mutagens, and the introduction of thousands of untested chemicals into the environment after World War II. This prompted expressions of concern by Joshua Lederberg (U.S., 1955), Alfred Barthelmess (Germany, 1956), Charlotte Auerbach (Scotland, 1960), Fritz Sobels (Netherlands, 1962), James Crow (U.S. 1966), and Rachel Carson (U.S., 1962) in “Silent Spring.” Alexander Hollaender and colleagues acted on these concerns by founding in 1969 the Environmental Mutagen Society, now the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS), followed by the founding of the European EMS by Fritz Sobels in 1970. As Fred de Serres noted, such societies were necessary because protecting populations from environmental mutagens could not be addressed by existing scientific societies, and new alliances were required to spearhead this movement. EMGS gathered policy makers and scientists from government, industry, and academia who helped to implement laws requiring genotoxicity testing of pesticides and drugs, created an electronic database of the mutagenesis literature, promoted basic and applied research in DNA repair and mutagenesis, and established training programs, expanding the science worldwide. After 50 years, the voyage is unfinished, and a vibrant EMGS is needed to bring this daring mutagenesis mission to its intended target. [Abstract does not necessarily reflect the view or policies of the U.S. EPA.]