Speaker: Richard Hertzberg
Description: This problems-based workshop focuses on advanced approaches to mixtures risk assessment of environmental chemicals. Individuals taking this workshop should have good understanding of basic chemicals mixture risk assessment. This workshop will summarize key concepts and terminology used to implement mixture risk approaches, then will discuss recent advances in the development of the dioxin toxicity equivalence factors (TEFs). The workshop will then shift to whole mixtures. Topics include developing whole-mixture toxicity values and evaluating sufficient similarity of two or more mixtures. The “hands-on” exercise in this workshop will illustrate the concepts underlying the evaluation of whether two mixtures are sufficiently similar, such that toxicity information for one (i.e., the test mixture) can be used to evaluate health risks posed by exposures to the other (i.e., the mixture of concern in the environment). The next topics will include how systematic review can inform the uncertainty and confidence in the mixture risk assessment, and then the ways physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models can be applied to a mixture risk assessment. Finally, this workshop will address the potential uses of new approach methodologies (NAMs) in chemical mixtures risk assessments, as well as how in vitro data could be used mathematically to predict mixture risks. Discussions include real world examples, exercise results, and answers to general questions.
Speaker: Amanda Wachtel
Description: Sandia National Laboratories is offering a workshop on community resilience planning and its publicly available Resilient Node Cluster Analysis Tool (ReNCAT). It will address what makes a community resilient, how to incorporate the risks associated with different types of threats, and common goals communities have when making decisions around resilience investments. Training will also be provided on the lab’s Social Burden Metric, a novel way to identify and quantitatively measure equities or disparities in resource access across different study areas. The Social Burden Metric can be used alone or in conjunction with ReNCAT to make equity-driven decisions regarding siting critical infrastructure or selecting energy resilience technologies at least cost. Participants will walk through a case study that closely represents situations researchers have seen during extensive work with communities to get a better idea of how these studies take shape and the value of technical analysis in place-based projects.
Moving from the theoretical to the practical, workshop attendees will be trained on and use the ReNCAT software to develop a model of the community from the case study. They will run an optimization to understand potential locations for microgrids throughout the community that minimize both cost and the burden on residents to acquire critical services. The workshop will end with a deep dive into results from the model, what they mean, and how to talk through the tradeoffs of different resilient investment options with community stakeholders.
