Six Northwestern scientists met with the Environmental Protection Agency and legislative members Oct. 18 to discuss changes to the EPA’s guidelines for reproductive health research.
The current guidelines are outdated, said Kate Timmerman, the program director of the Oncofertility Consortium who traveled to Washington, D.C., with the team. The guidelines do not reflect new research, and the effect of toxins on reproductive health is not being researched consistently across genders and lifespan, she argued.
Timmerman said the EPA’s reproductive toxicity risk assessment guidelines have not been updated since 1996.
“A lot of phenomenal work has been done on reproductive health and the environment since that time, so one of our goals was to get the EPA to recognize a need to update these guidelines,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman also said the way reproductive health is defined in the guidelines needs refinement.
“They just focused on the ability to conceive an offspring, so essentially the baby-making capability of the reproductive system,” Timmerman said. “We really think that when you look at the research that’s been done over the past 15 to 20 years, you see that long term, having a functioning reproductive system is really important across organs and across general health everywhere from childhood to old age.”
Timmerman said groundwork for the advocacy began when Francesca Duncan, a Feinberg School of Medicine obstetrics and gynecology post fellow, and Kimberly Gray, a McCormick professor, met with other University investigators to write a proposal about the reproductive ramifications of long-term exposure to environmental toxins. The group focused on a former zinc smelting facility and phosphate fertilizer plant in DePue, Ill. The 950-acre plot is contaminated with zinc, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and copper and has been recognized as an extremely toxic environment targeted by Superfund, the EPA’s uncontrolled hazardous waste cleanup program, Timmerman explained.
Dr. Mary Ellen Pavone, a Feinberg assistant professor; Melissa Resh, a health teacher in the Chicago Public Schools; and Candace Tingen, a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, rounded out the team that traveled to D.C.
“We really aimed to put together an interdisciplinary group of people who all cared about either reproductive health and/or the environment,” Timmerman said.
In addition to talking to members of the EPA, they also addressed two of congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Ill.) legislative assistants. Timmerman said the meeting was scheduled by Virginia Neale, associate director of governmental relations at NU.
“One of the things we figured out from our discussions is that, in addition to having members of the research and clinical community specifically talk to the EPA, it’s also really useful to have members of Congress also having these discussions with the EPA,” Timmerman said.
The next steps, Timmerman said, include writing letters to the EPA asking for the guidelines to be updated while also asking Schakowsky’s office, professional societies and community groups to do the same. Timmerman added she hoped the changes will go into effect within a year.
“This experience was really informative, and it was surprising how transparent the staff members at the EPA were about the organization and how willing they were to work with us,” Timmerman said. “We really look forward to those next steps and continuing to work with them.”
— Megan Pauly
