Friday 3rd of September 2021 - SETE meeting

Tenth meeting of the COT and COC SETE subgroup

COT/COC subgroup on the synthesis and integration of epidemiological and toxicological evidence in risk assessments

Agenda

Agenda of the Tenth Meeting, Friday 3rd of September 2021, 10:00 am to 11:00 am, via teleconference

1. Welcome and goals of meeting

2. Draft report and guidance

• Final amendments
• Any outstanding comments
• Next steps

3. Discussion of Eurotox poster (if time permits)

4. AOB

Minutes

Present:

Chair: Alan Boobis                     

Committee Members:

• Gill Clare  
• Phil Botham               
• Gunter Kuhnle                  
• David Lovell                     
• Mireille Toledano
• Heather Wallace
• Valentina Guercio, PHE
• George Loizou

Secretariat:

• Barbara Doerr, FSA
• David Gott ,      FSA
• Cath Mulholland, FSA
• Britta Gadeberg, PHE

Apologies were received by Alison Gowers, Neil Pearce and Lesley Rushton.

The Chair welcomed Members and other attendees.

The aim of the meeting was to address any final changes to the text or structure of the report and guidance following comments by the COT and COC at their respective meetings in August 2021.  

Minor editorial changes were made to address some of the remaining comments. Members resolved discussion on the epidemiological section by changing one of the section subheadings, thereby highlighting/including a number of considerations within epidemiology, not only bias.

To determine whether the guidance is applicable or requires adjustments, Members intend to apply it to a number of future Committee papers, especially utilising the visual representation of causality. The assessment of dioxin has previously been suggested as a case study. However, given the timeframe for dioxin, a number of assessments on maternal diet have been suggested as good case studies in the shorter term.

Following the meeting, the Secretariat will finalise the document, ensuring accessibility and start the process of publication on the Committees’ respective websites. As the report/guidance is expected to be of some influence and set the tone for integrating different evidence strands, Members and the Secretariat agreed that it would be sensible to circulate the document to the FSA’s Future Publication Panel (FPP) for consideration.

To provide the report and guidance with the anticipated visibility, the link to the documents will be circulated to other Scientific Advisory Committees and (international) authorities, once published. 

Members endorsed the poster for Eurotox and are anticipating the report/guidance to be published in a scientific journal in the near future.