5th meeting of Chairs and Secretariats of EU Commission and Agency Scientific Committees and Panels involved in Risk Assessment, Brussels, 18-19 November 2009

5th meeting of Chairs and Secretariats of EU Commission and Agency Scientific Committees and Panels involved in Risk Assessment, Brussels, 18-19 November 2009

5th meeting of Chairs and Secretariats of EU Commission and Agency
Scientific Committees and Panels involved in Risk Assessment
Brussels, 18-19 November 2009

The 5th Meeting of Chairs and Secretariats of EU Scientific Committees and Panels involved in Risk Assessment took place in Brussels on 18 and 19 November 2009. The aim of these annual meetings is to share experiences and best practices on risk assessment in order to improve its quality and communication and thereby improve support to risk managers’ decisions.

At this meeting, representatives of the Scientific Committees, Panels and Secretariats of EU Commission and Agencies involved in risk assessment considered scientific issues of common interest and identified areas and topics for further cooperation. In particular, the three objectives of this year were:

a) to introduce and discuss two new subjects, synthetic biology and the next generations of nanotechnologies as well as their implications for risk assessment;

b) to review progress with the action points decided at previous meetings, and

c) to discuss the future of the Chairs' collaboration and take decisions in that respect.

In addition, a broader dialogue with the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of some of the EP Committees took place on 18 November.

In the afternoon of 19 November, a special session regarding the progress and perspectives on alternative test methods took place, covering, inter alia, new approaches in the field, such as computational toxicology, toxicogenomics etc.

Report

Presentations Day 1 (18 November 2009)

• Action Points decided upon at the 4th Meeting: A Progress Report
  Bernardo Delogu
  European Commission, DG Health and Consumers
• Governance of New Generations of Nanotechnology Products and Processes
  Mihail C. Roco
  US National Science Foundation and National Nanotechnology Initiative
• Synthetic Biology: Engineering life
  Luis Serrano
  Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona

Presentations Day 2 (19 November 2009)

Reports Breakout Groups

• Emerging risks
• Evaluating uncertainty, weighing scientific evidence and using the appropriate terminology in risk assessment
• Exposure assessment

Session on Alternative test methods, new approaches and methods for hazard identification and assessment and their implications for risk assessment

• The EU policy and regulatory Framework on the Replacement, Reduction, Refinement of Animal Testing and the Development of Alternative Methods
  • General Outline and Pillars of EU Policy on 3Rs
    Cornelis Brekelmans
    European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry
  • The REACH Case
    Bjorn Hansen
    European Commission, DG Environment
• Development and Validation of Alternative Methods
  Sharon Munn
  JRC (ECVAM)
• The European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA)
  Odile de Silva
  L’Oréal
• The ReProTect Framework Program: New Innovative Approaches for Evaluating Fertilization, Implantation and Prenatal Development
  Michael Schwarz
  University of Tübingen, Germany
• ACuteTox: Optimisation and pre-validation of an in vitro test strategy for predicting human acute toxicity
  Cecilia Clemedson
  ACuteTox
• ASAT - Assuring Safety without Animal Testing
  Bart Sangster
  ASAT