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John Vandenberg

Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environmental Natural Sciences
Environmental Natural Science
Box 90328, Durham, NC 27708-0328
A152 Lev Sci Res Ctr, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications


New Toxicology Tools and the Emerging Paradigm Shift in Environmental Health Decision-Making.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · December 2019 BackgroundNumerous types of rapid toxicity or exposure assays and platforms are providing information relevant to human hazard and exposure identification. They offer the promise of aiding decision-making in a variety of contexts including the reg ... Full text Cite

Incorporating epigenetics into a risk assessment framework

Chapter · January 1, 2018 The evidence that epigenomic modification by environmental factors can pose significant public health risks is substantial. Epigenomic modification can include a wide variety of health effects. Exposures during sensitive life stages (i.e., fetus, neonates ... Full text Cite

Application of epigenetic data in human health risk assessment.

Journal Article Current opinion in toxicology · November 2017 Despite the many recent advances in the field of epigenetics, application of this knowledge in environmental health risk assessment has been limited. In this paper, we identify opportunities for application of epigenetic data to support health risk assessm ... Full text Cite

The Next Generation of Risk Assessment Multi-Year Study-Highlights of Findings, Applications to Risk Assessment, and Future Directions.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · November 2016 BackgroundThe Next Generation (NexGen) of Risk Assessment effort is a multi-year collaboration among several organizations evaluating new, potentially more efficient molecular, computational, and systems biology approaches to risk assessment. This ... Full text Cite

Residential metal contamination and potential health risks of exposure in adobe brick houses in Potosí, Bolivia.

Journal Article Sci Total Environ · August 15, 2016 Potosí, Bolivia, is the site of centuries of historic and present-day mining of the Cerro Rico, a mountain known for its rich polymetallic deposits, and was the site of large-scale Colonial era silver refining operations. In this study, the concentrations ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Mercury hair levels and factors that influence exposure for residents of Huancavelica, Peru.

Journal Article Environ Geochem Health · June 2015 Between 1564 and 1810, nearly 17,000 metric tons of mercury (Hg) vapor was released to the environment during cinnabar refining in the small town of Huancavelica, Peru. The present study characterizes individual exposure to mercury using total and speciate ... Full text Link to item Cite

Scientific considerations for evaluating cancer bioassays conducted by the Ramazzini Institute.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · November 2013 BackgroundThe Ramazzini Institute (RI) has completed nearly 400 cancer bioassays on > 200 compounds. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and others have suggested that study design and protocol differences between the RI and other laboratori ... Full text Cite

Comparison of PBTK model and biomarker based estimates of the internal dosimetry of acrylamide.

Journal Article Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association · August 2013 Estimates of internal dosimetry for acrylamide (AA, 2-propenamide; CASRN: 79-06-1) and its active metabolite glycidamide (GA) were compared using either biomarkers of internal exposure (hemoglobin adduct levels in rats and humans) or a PBTK model (Sweeney ... Full text Cite

Residential mercury contamination in adobe brick homes in Huancavelica, Peru.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2013 This is the first study of adobe brick contamination anywhere in the world. Huancavelica, Peru is the site of historic cinnabar refining and one of the most mercury (Hg) contaminated urban areas in the world. Over 80% of homes in Huancavelica are construct ... Full text Link to item Cite

O-184

Journal Article Epidemiology · September 2012 Full text Cite

Estimations of historical atmospheric mercury concentrations from mercury refining and present-day soil concentrations of total mercury in Huancavelica, Peru.

Journal Article Sci Total Environ · June 1, 2012 Detailed Spanish records of cinnabar mining and mercury production during the colonial period in Huancavelica, Peru were examined to estimate historical health risks to the community from exposure to elemental mercury (Hg) vapor resulting from cinnabar ref ... Full text Link to item Cite

Emerging contaminants: presentations at the 2009 Toxicology and Risk Assessment Conference.

Journal Article Toxicology and applied pharmacology · July 2011 A session entitled "Emerging Contaminants" was held in April 2009 in Cincinnati, OH at the 2009 Toxicology and Risk Assessment Conference. The purpose of the session was to share information on both programmatic and technical aspects associated with emergi ... Full text Cite

Estimating historical atmospheric mercury concentrations from silver mining and their legacies in present-day surface soil in Potosí, Bolivia

Journal Article Atmospheric Environment · January 1, 2011 Detailed Spanish records of mercury use and silver production during the colonial period in Potosí, Bolivia were evaluated to estimate atmospheric emissions of mercury from silver smelting. Mercury was used in the silver production process in Potosí and ne ... Full text Cite

Meeting report: Estimating the benefits of reducing hazardous air pollutants--summary of 2009 workshop and future considerations.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · January 2011 BackgroundQuantifying the benefits of reducing hazardous air pollutants (HAPs, or air toxics) has been limited by gaps in toxicological data, uncertainties in extrapolating results from high-dose animal experiments to estimate human effects at low ... Full text Cite

Estimating historical atmospheric mercury concentrations from silver mining and their legacies in present-day surface soil in Potosí, Bolivia

Journal Article Atmospheric Environment · November 2010 Detailed Spanish records of mercury use and silver production during the colonial period in Potosí, Bolivia were evaluated to estimate atmospheric emissions of mercury from silver smelting. Mercury was used in the silver production process in Potosí and ne ... Full text Link to item Cite

Formaldehyde and leukemia: epidemiology, potential mechanisms, and implications for risk assessment.

Journal Article Environmental and molecular mutagenesis · April 2010 Formaldehyde is widely used in the United States and other countries. Occupational and environmental exposures to formaldehyde may be associated with an increased risk of leukemia in exposed individuals. However, risk assessment of formaldehyde and leukemi ... Full text Cite

Meeting report: moving upstream-evaluating adverse upstream end points for improved risk assessment and decision-making.

Conference Environmental health perspectives · November 2008 BackgroundAssessing adverse effects from environmental chemical exposure is integral to public health policies. Toxicology assays identifying early biological changes from chemical exposure are increasing our ability to evaluate links between earl ... Full text Cite

U.S. air quality management: local, regional and global approaches.

Journal Article Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part A · January 2008 The purpose of this article is to review approaches to air quality management (AQM) in the United States. To characterize AQM in the United States, four examples that addressed local, regional, and global scale air pollution are described. These examples i ... Full text Cite

The complexities of air pollution regulation: the need for an integrated research and regulatory perspective.

Journal Article Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · December 2007 The Clean Air Act mandates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to periodically reassess existing and new science that underlie the regulation of major ambient pollutants -- particulate matter (PM) and tropospheric ozone being most notable. While toxic ... Full text Cite

Risk assessment at the USEPA: The science behind the assessments

Journal Article Human and Ecological Risk Assessment · January 1, 2007 The products of human health research and risk assessment are fundamental to the Agency's regulatory decision-making process. Innovative and cutting-edge approaches to risk assessment issues are being developed by the USEPA and with well-targeted research ... Full text Cite

Perspectives on air quality policy issues in Europe and North America.

Journal Article Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part A · July 2005 This article presents an overview of progress and future directions in air quality management in Europe, the United States, and Canada. The article describes the role of the European Commission, the Clean Air for Europe program, and the World Health Organi ... Full text Cite

The role of air quality management programs in improving public health: a brief synopsis.

Journal Article The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · February 2005 Observations of adverse effects of air pollution on public health, illustrated by the London smog events in the 1950s, led to legislation in the United States requiring development of federal, state, and local air quality management programs. The implement ... Full text Cite

he role of air quality management programs in improving public health: A brief synopsis

Journal Article The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · February 2005 Cite

Inhalation Risk Assessment at the Environmental Protection Agency 1

Chapter · January 1, 2005 The potential adverse health effects of human exposures to environmental pollutants are characterized through a process called health risk assessment. The National Research Council, in Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, define ... Full text Cite

Childhood respiratory symptoms, hospital admissions, and long-term exposure to airborne particulate matter.

Journal Article Journal of exposure analysis and environmental epidemiology · January 2001 The effects of long-term exposure to air pollution on respiratory symptoms and respiratory hospitalization (for asthma, bronchitis or pneumonia) were assessed in a cross-sectional study of children (ages 7--11 years, N=667) living in a moderately industria ... Full text Cite

Evaluation and use of epidemiological evidence for environmental health risk assessment: WHO guideline document.

Journal Article Environmental health perspectives · October 2000 Environmental health risk assessment is increasingly being used in the development of environmental health policies, public health decision making, the establishment of environmental regulations, and research planning. The credibility of risk assessment de ... Full text Cite

Personal exposure to particles in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.

Journal Article Journal of exposure analysis and environmental epidemiology · September 2000 Epidemiological studies have associated adverse health impacts with ambient concentrations of particulate matter (PM), though these studies have been limited in their characterization of personal exposure to PM. An exposure study of healthy nonsmoking adul ... Full text Cite

Nonlinearities in concentration x time relationships: Implications for risk assessors

Journal Article Comments on Toxicology · January 1, 1997 Health agencies often are charged with assessing and addressing the public health consequences of pollution exposure. Limitations in toxicological and exposure data lead to various extrapolations from animal studies to humans and from one exposure scenario ... Cite

Risk assessment and research: an essential link.

Journal Article Toxicology letters · September 1995 Regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, use health risk assessment information in developing pollution control regulations and for setting regulatory and research priorities. The risk assessment process, however, is hampered ... Full text Cite

EPA's research to improve health risk assessments (RIHRA) program. Overview and water-related research

Conference Proceedings AWWA Annual Conference · December 1, 1991 Federal law requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess drinking water risks and to set standards to insure a safe drinking water supply. Given limited data, risk assessors rely on high dose experimental data, results from occupational hea ... Cite

Reproductive Ecology of the Endangered Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes)

Journal Article Journal of Herpetology · September 1991 Full text Cite

Comparing alternative approaches to establishing regulatory levels for reproductive toxicants: DBCP as a case study.

Conference Environmental health perspectives · February 1991 This paper compares four alternative approaches for deriving regulatory levels for reproductive toxicants by applying them to the available data on the human spermatotoxicant 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP). The alternatives examined include the Proposi ... Full text Cite

Exposure and risk assessment of chromium electroplaters

Conference Proceedings A WMA Annual Meeting · December 1, 1989 The EPA has estimated the cancer health risks resulting from exposure to hexavalent chromium emissions to the atmosphere from electroplating facilities. Due to the scarcity of facility-specific emissions data, an area source algorithm of the Human Exposure ... Cite

Use of an evaluated toxicity data base in setting priorities for the assessment of reproductive toxicants

Conference Proceedings A WMA Annual Meeting · December 1, 1989 The purpose of this paper is to present one possible approach for selecting teratogens, focusing on those with the potential for environmental exposures. Such an approach may be of value in a variety of regulatory settings. The regulation of reproductive t ... Cite

Comparison of surrogate surface techniques for estimation of sulfate dry deposition

Journal Article Atmospheric Environment 1967 · January 1, 1985 The dry deposition rates of sulfate particles to artificial surfaces within and above a mature hardwood forest were measured over an annual range of synoptic weather conditions. Artificial, or 'surrogate', surfaces representing both rough and smooth textur ... Full text Cite