Joint session - COC 2022

3.12       COC and COM held a joint discussion session in March 2022, to which COT members were also invited.

3.13       Dr John Doe gave a presentation summarising the key points from the recent paper by Harrison and Doe ‘The modification of cancer risk by chemicals’ (Toxicology Research, Volume 10, Issue 4, August 2021, Pages 800–809). There was agreement that the model proposed by Harrison and Doe articulated the development of cancer very clearly and there was desire to consider its use in chemical risk assessments. Future aspects to address included quantification, accounting for chemical concentration effects, and ensuring appropriate communication of uncertainty and ambiguity.

3.14       This was followed by a presentation by Dr Lesley Rushton on the evidence for shift work acting as a modifying risk factor for cancer. This was considered to exemplify why the impact of modifying factors for cancer risk should be evaluated, including considering other factors associated with them, for example obesity is associated with shift work and would also affect cancer risk/.

3.15       The session continued to provide a number of updates to COC and COM on the COT work on microplastics, the COM guidance on nanomaterials, the work of the FSA Joint Expert Groups, the OPSS Scientific Advisory Group on Chemical Safety of Non-Food and Non-Medicinal Consumer Products and the FSA computational toxicology fellowship and LiDO PhD studentship.