RA August 2021

Question 1

STAR Method

Answer 1

Situation - describe a challenging situation I was in. Task/Target - what did I want to achieve? Action - What did I do, and why? What were the alternatives? Result - What was the outcome? What did I learn?

Question 2

Where can environmental fate and transport information be found?

Answer 2

In EPA’s CompTox Chemicals Dashboard, there is a section for “Env Fate/Transport”. It lists properties such as: bioaccumulation factor, bioconcentration factor, soil adsopr. coeff (Koc), biodeg. half life, etc. Kow, density, viscosity, vapor pressure, MP/BP, Henry’s Law constant.

Question 3

Describe RAGS

Answer 3

EPA’s Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (RAGS). It is broken down into 6 parts (A through F)

Question 4

Describe SADA

Answer 4

Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) o Risk assessment tool. one for human health, and one for ecological. o Human Health: Follow’s EPA’s Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (RAGS) o It can model exposure. It has tox information. It seems very site-specific; it can perform “risk mapping” o I will learn more about it in my upcoming Risk Assessment course.

Question 5

Describe RfD

Answer 5

RfD = Oral Reference Dose o A reference dose is an estimate of the amount of a chemical a person can ingest daily over a lifetime (chronic RfD) or less (subchronic RfD) that is unlikely to lead to adverse health effects.

Question 6

Describe HHBP

Answer 6

• EPA recently published its 2021 update of the Human Health Benchmarks for Pesticides (HHBPs) in drinking water or source water.

Question 7

Describe OSF. How can it be used to estimate lifetime cancer risk?

Answer 7

Oral slope factor: an estimate of the increased cancer risk from oral exposure to a dose of 1 mg/kg-day for a lifetime. The OSF can be multiplied by an estimate of lifetime exposure (in mg/kg-day) to estimate the lifetime cancer risk.

Question 8

Describe “A Compilation of Water Quality Goals”

Answer 8

o Searchable online database o Has over 800 chemicals and water quality parameters o For each chemical, has many different thresholds, such as:  Drinking water standards (Primary MCLs, Secondary MCLs)  Aquatic life (for both freshwater and marine)  Cancer risk – one in a million, one in 100,000

Question 9

Define bioactivation

Answer 9

Formation of harmful or highly reactive metabolic from relatively inert/nontoxic chemical compounds is called bioactivation or toxication. The bioactive metabolites often interact with the body tissues to precipitate one or more forms of toxicities such as carcinogenesis, teratogenesis, and tissue necrosis.

Question 10

Describe the BCP

Answer 10

o From the BCP: “Requesting General Funds be directed to a new account within the Water Board’s Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund (USTCF) for establishing a new program for grant allocation to parties for investigation and cleanup efforts at contaminated sites in communities in California historically designated as redlined. Request includes funding for additional PY authority at the Water Boards for Division of Financial Assistance (DFA) grant implementation and Regional Water Board Site Cleanup Program oversight of investigation and cleanup work performed at the sites.”  Redlined = “high credit and investment risk due to predominantly black populations”

Question 11

What is your biggest weakness?

Answer 11

I don’t like to interrupt someone when they are working. I may err on the side of not interrupting, when I should have brought something to their attention quicker.

Question 12

Name some other partition coefficients, besides Kow.

Answer 12

 Air / Water Partition Coefficient (Henry’s Law)  Soil / Water Partition Coefficient  [The organic fraction of soil is important for fate and transport]

Question 13

Describe the graphic that Steve McMasters shared.

Answer 13

o Steve McMasters shared a graph of Open SCP Sites in Geographic Areas, grouped by HOLC Category.

Question 14

What would you do to advance racial equity and diversity?

Answer 14

a. Definition of racial equity: Racial equity occurs when race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes and when outcomes for all groups are improved. b. I would continue to educate myself. i. TED Talks ii. Books iii. Resources on waternet and DWQ SharePoint – list of videos, books, and articles – I have been working my way through this – each time, I learn something new. iv. Just started reading the Color of Law – there is an erroneous belief that segregation is a result of individual choices, but the book points out that it is actually due to explicit government policies from decades ago.

Question 15

Describe GeoTracker

Answer 15

o GeoTracker is the Water Boards’ data management system for sites that impact, or have the potential to impact, water quality in California, with emphasis on groundwater. o GeoTracker contains records for sites that require cleanup, such as Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Sites, Department of Defense Sites, and Cleanup Program Sites. o GeoTracker also contains records for various unregulated projects as well as permitted facilities including: Irrigated Lands, Oil and Gas production, operating Permitted USTs, and Land Disposal Sites.

Question 16

Describe “read-across”

Answer 16

i. A method to infer toxicity information from a compound with no/little toxicological data on the compound itself, based on tox data from similar compound(s). The “similar” compound can be chemically similar in terms of structure, or have a biologically similar mode of action.

Question 17

Describe IRIS

Answer 17

• IRIS database (Integrated Risk Information System) o EPA’s IRIS Program identifies and characterizes the health hazards of chemicals found in the environment. o Each IRIS assessment can cover a chemical, a group of related chemicals, or a complex mixture. o IRIS assessments are an important source of toxicity information used by EPA and other agencies.

Question 18

How is lifetime cancer risk calculated?

Answer 18

Lifetime Cancer Risk = (Avg Daily Dose aka Chronic Daily Intake) x (CSF aka Potency Factor)

Question 19

Describe ToxCast.

Answer 19

EPA Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast)  ToxCast uses high-throughput screening methods and computational toxicology approaches to rank and prioritize chemicals. i.e., IN VITRO, not in vivo.  ToxCast uses automated chemical screening technologies, called high-throughput screening assays, to expose living cells or biological macromolecules such as proteins to chemicals. • The cells or isolated proteins are then screened for changes in biological activity that may suggest potential health hazards.  ToxCast data are available on EPA’s “Computational Toxicology Chemicals Dashboard” database.

Question 20

Describe the Bradford-Hill criteria

Answer 20

Criteria to determine Causation: 1. Strength (effect size) 2. Biological gradient (dose-response relationship) 3. Plausibility (plausible biological mechanism)

Question 21

What is a tox profile? Who creates them?

Answer 21

• Tox profile: Extensive information on toxicological and epidemiological studies related to a chemical. Created by the ATSDR. The one for acetone is ~255 pages.

Question 22

Describe the weight of evidence approach

Answer 22

• Weight of evidence approach – used in order to give priority or “weight” to different lines of evidence that are used in risk assessment

Question 23

Describe CERCLA

Answer 23

o The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act – otherwise known as CERCLA or Superfund – provides a Federal “Superfund” to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment. Through CERCLA, EPA was given power to seek out those parties responsible for any release and assure their cooperation in the cleanup.

Question 24

Describe hazard vs risk

Answer 24

A hazard is something that has the potential to cause harm risk is the likelihood of harm taking place, based on exposure to that hazard

Question 25

Describe CalEnviroScreen

Answer 25

• CalEnviroScreen (CES) is a tool developed by OEHHA to identify communities that are disproportionately impacted by a combination of environmental stressors and socioeconomic disadvantages.

Question 26

Name the risk assessment “bible” and the organization that created it.

Answer 26

Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment (Silver Book). National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences)

Question 27

Describe the main components of an environmental risk assessment.

Answer 27

2 main types: Human Health Risk Assessment, and Ecological Risk Assessment. Steps: Problem Formulation (identify scope and objectives) Exposure Assessment (evaluate exposure scenarios and pathways) Hazard Assessment (Examines if/how a stressor could cause adverse effects, and what doses) Risk Characterization (combines exposure and hazard info to synthesize info and characterize risk) Uncertainty Assessment (included in whole process)

Question 28

Describe NPL

Answer 28

National Priorities List - Superfund

Question 29

What are your accomplishments?

Answer 29

1. Toxicity Appendix J and resulting RTC. 2. Toxicity Training for RWB staff. 3. Stakeholder Committee for C. dubia. 4. Presentations to Expert Panel, State Water Board.

Question 30

Define RSD. How is it calculated?

Answer 30

Risk-Specific Dose (RSD): RSD = 0.000001 / CSF

Question 31

Explain the difference between LNAPLs and DNAPLs

Answer 31

o L = Light (less dense than water; float on top) o D = Dense (more dense than water; sink to bottom)

Question 32

Describe the Human Toxome Project

Answer 32

Goal: identify pathways of toxicity using “-omics”

Question 33

Explain why the octanol-water partition coefficient is useful.

Answer 33

 It is useful because in laboratory experiments, octanol is a good surrogate for the organic carbon fraction of soils.  In other words, the partitioning behavior of organic compounds between octanol and water is similar to that between the organic carbon fraction of soil and water.

Question 34

Describe a time when you had a difficult interaction with a colleague.

Answer 34

a. Conflicting direction from management vs OCC in response to comments?

Question 35

Describe ATSDR

Answer 35

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Works on hazardous waste sites. o CERCLA requires the ATSDR (jointly with EPA) to:  create a list of hazardous substances most commonly found at Superfund sites,  prepare toxicological profiles for each substance included on priority list  ascertain significant human exposure levels (SHELs) for hazardous substances in the environment, and the associated acute, subacute, and chronic health effects

Question 36

What have I worked on that is related to BCPs?

Answer 36

Scope of Work for a contract.

Question 37

Define Mode of Action and Mechanism of Action

Answer 37

o mode of action = cellular level o mechanism of action = molecular level

Question 38

Describe NAPL

Answer 38

o Non-aqueous phase liquids (hydrocarbons that don’t dissolve in water).

Question 39

Describe ECOTOX

Answer 39

EPA Ecotoxicology Knowledgebase (ECOTOX)  Searchable database for chemical toxicity data for aquatic life, terrestrial plants and wildlife.  Information included: • Chemical name, purity • Species name, age, endpoint (growth, etc.) • Citation to the original peer-reviewed research paper

Question 40

Define MRL. What are they used for / what is their purpose?

Answer 40

Minimum Risk Level: Similar to RfD  MRL is an estimate of the daily human exposure to a hazardous substance that is likely to be without appreciable risk of adverse non-cancer health effects over a specified duration of exposure. These substance-specific estimates, which are intended to serve as screening levels, are used by ATSDR health assessors and other responders to identify contaminants and potential health effects that may be of concern at hazardous waste sites.

Question 41

Describe the ATSDR guidance manual

Answer 41

They have a Public Health Assessment Guidance Manual (350 pages): evaluate exposures associated with haz sites, assess potential for health effects, involve communities.

Question 42

Define SCAP

Answer 42

o SCAP = Site Cleanup Subaccount Program o funding program established by Senate Bill (SB) 445 o allows the State Water Board to issue grants for projects that remediate the harm or threat of harm to human health, safety, or the environment caused by existing or threatened surface water or groundwater contamination.

Question 43

Describe the IARC monographs.

Answer 43

The Preamble to the IARC Monographs describes the objective and scope of the program, the scientific principles and procedures used in developing a Monograph, the types of evidence considered, and the scientific criteria that guide the evaluations.

Question 44

Describe Tox21

Answer 44

Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and Strategy  National Research Council

Question 45

Define Adverse Outcome Pathway

Answer 45

Describes how chemical can cause disease, starting with the molecular initiating event (e.g., chemical binding to a receptor protein, or inhibiting an enzyme). The APO describes how the molecular initiating event leads to disease (stepwise for each level of biological organization).

Question 46

Describe EcoBox

Answer 46

EPA Ecological Risk Assessment Toolbox (EcoBox)  Collection of tools related to Ecological Risk Assessment  3 phases: problem formulation, analysis, and risk characterization  Tools can be sorted by different topics: stressors (e.g., chemical, physical), exposure routes (air, water, etc.)

Question 47

Describe the recently-discovered source of info about exposure assessment

Answer 47

EPA’s “ExpoBox” - exposure assessment toolbox. It seems very similar to EcoBox.

Question 48

What 3 questions should I ask at the end?

Answer 48

1. Would you like a writing sample? 2. Would you like links to my oral presentations? 3. Are you supportive of professional development, specifically, the SETAC IBERA certification AND the environmental risk assessment Graduate Certificate.