Policy
Resources to advance science-based policy solutions.

Moving Upstream

A Workshop on Evaluating Adverse Upstream Endpoints for Improved Decision Making and Risk Assessment

Common ways that chemicals harm fertility and reproductive health are by disrupting hormone signaling or by altering genetic orchestration of fertility and development. Recent scientific advancements make it possible to measure these physiological changes in relationship to exposure to chemicals. This information offers the opportunity to base health standards on more sensitive and protective endpoints.

In May 2007, PRHE collaborated with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the California Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Center for Environmental Economics National Center for Environmental Assessment, and the University of California at Berkeley Superfund Basic Research Program to hold a workshop on how measures of physiological change, such as alterations in hormone levels or gene expression, can be considered in the context of "adversity" and how data on these precursors or upstream indicators of toxicity can be used to improve hazard identification and dose response characterizations.