The Lifeline Group

News & Events

EPA STAR Research Grant: Protecting Americans through Better Chemical Exposure Monitoring

The LifeLine Group is pleased to announce that it was a recipient of an EPA STAR research grant to do work on improving biomonitoring. The award of $749,991 will enable The LifeLine Group to link exposure and models as a method to characterize the relationships between exposures and biomarker levels of two perfluorinated compounds, perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS). The resulting model will then be used to test the hypothesis that the known sources of perfluorinated compounds can explain the observed variation in serum levels of the compounds with age, gender, and ethnicity. The method has the potential to provide significant quantitative insight on the exposures and doses associated with observed levels of the compounds.

Research Project:
Determination of Aggregate and Cumulative Exposures of Perfluorinated Compounds Consistent with Biomarkers of the Compounds Using Simulation Modeling of Exposure and Pharmacokinetics

Objective:
To develop a novel method that relates the cumulative exposures to known sources of perfluorinated compounds to the observed levels of PFOA and PFOS in serum. Subsequently, to use this method to investigate if known sources of PFOA and PFOS are adequate to explain observed serum levels in the U.S population.

The full project abstract is available on the EPA website.

Full details of the award and the program are in the September 25^th EPA announcement.

Beth Dederick

The LifeLine Group wishes to congratulate Beth Dederick on her completion of the requirements for the PhD in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While working at LifeLine, Beth used the LifeLine™ tools as a foundation for her thesis. She made significant contributions to the improvement and evolution of new software and its attendant products. Her creativity spawned the idea for the new format for the tutorials which will be a great help to those learning how to use the new software.

Beth will be leaving LLG and starting a new position in early October at ICF International. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Beth for the wonderful job she did at LifeLine and to wish her all the best in her new job.

Collaboration on Creating Exposure and Risk Assessment Software

The LifeLine Group (LLG) and The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment {Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM)} in Bilthoven, The Netherlands, have entered into a collaboration to create, enhance and promote exposure and risk assessment software and its components that addresses chemical regulatory and research needs.

Such software would be designed to meet the perspectives of regulatory bodies such as (but not limited to) the European Union and its member countries, the United States of America and its States, or Canada, and associated applications such as research, priority setting, sensitivity analysis or other related needs. This software will set the stage for similar software and new versions of the software to be developed under this agreement and utilized in other countries and by other groups over time.

RIVM is a government entity of the Netherlands well known for its excellence in exposure assessment sciences.