Committee

Dr John MacLachlan is currently a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Glasgow Caledonian University, with teaching and research interests in the analytical chemistry aspects of environmental chemistry and toxicology.  Specific research interests include the use of GC-MS and LC-MS (as appropriate) in the trace analysis of steroids in body fluids, and environmental pesticides and VOC’s.  Also he has research interests in the pedagogical aspects of science teaching.  He is Chair of the “Science” Suite of BSc (Hons) Programme Board and Assessment Board.  Also, he is a member of the Scottish Regional Analytical Division Committee of the RSC and an RSC journal referee.

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Kate Jones is an analytical chemist working as a senior scientist for the Health & Safety Laboratory.  She has wide experience and expertise in the biological monitoring of organic compounds, this includes skills in: the use of specialist analytical techniques and instrumentation such as GC, GC-MS, HPLC and LC-MS; method development; toxicology; and gaining approval for and running human volunteer studies.  Kate has been heavily involved in developing biological monitoring for isocyanates in the UK as a means of assessing and controlling exposure.  As a senior scientist Kate has responsibility for undertaking her own research, supervising the research of others and organising the day-to-day running of the Biological Monitoring laboratory, ensuring that work is completed to stringent quality standards within the requisite turnaround times.  She is past Chair of the annual conference scientific committee for the British Occupational Hygiene Society, a regional organiser for BOHS and their ambassador to South Africa.

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Mr Hart spent the first 22 years of his career working for ICI, 17 years in their Central Toxicology Laboratory, working on a variety of studies primarily concerned with carcinogenicity and reproductive toxicity. More recently he has worked for two years as a toxicology advisor in an ICI business and then in a corporate role concerned with hazard communication safety data sheets etc. He then spent six year in a product regulatory role for a US based speciality chemical company (Morton International), before joining National Starch & Chemical (part of the ICI Group, now AkzoNobel) in 1999, as a product regulatory manager, responsible for several polymer based businesses, covering industrial, food contact, coatings, water treatment and personal care products.

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Dr Muireann Coen is based in the Division of Biomolecular Medicine, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London. Her research expertise and interest lies in the application of advanced metabonomic/metabolomic tools to address toxicological problems. Dr Muireann Coen completed her PhD under the supervision of Professors Jeremy Nicholson (Imperial College London) and Ian Wilson (AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals) which provided unique training in the applications of hyphenated spectroscopic techniques to study both chemical and biochemical systems. A major focus of her PhD studies was the application of metabonomic technologies to study an integrated systems response to paracetamol-induced toxicity. This involved the application of heteronuclear, solution-state NMR (1H and 31P) to study biofluids and tissue extracts and magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR to study intact tissue. It resulted in much novel mechanistic insight into the systems level endogenous consequences of paracetamol toxicity together with characterisation of paracetamol metabolites in these biological matrices.

Dr Coen has since held a Royal Society Research Fellowship for research conducted at the University of Sydney and currently holds the MRC Integrative Toxicology Training Partnership (ITTP) Career Development Fellowship. As part of her MRC ITTP fellowship she is concentrating on integrative, mechanistically-driven studies of clinically important adverse drug reactions. 
She also held the position of research fellow and coordinator of the large-scale, international COMET project which comprised five pharmaceutical companies and Imperial College London and focused on novel metabonomic approaches to address key pre-clinical toxicological questions. This project was highly successful in the integration of inter-disciplinary scientific data, for example, mass spectrometry and heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy together with multiple ‘omics platforms.

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Mark Hosford works for a chemical company that develops and manufactures additives for the fuels and lubricants industry.  He assesses the hazards and risks of substances in the company portfolio and ensures compliance with various chemicals regulations such as REACH.  He also works alongside chemists in new product development.  Previously, Mark worked for the Environment Agency where his main focus was assessing the risks to human health from chemical contaminants in soil. He has also worked in environmental consultancy and in veterinary pharmaceutical consultancy. Mark is a member of the British Toxicology Society and is a UK and European Registered Toxicologist.  He is the RSC Toxicology Group Committee’s representative to the Royal College of Pathologists’ Speciality Advisory Committee on Toxicology.

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Dr Hoskins is an independent consultant toxicologist specialising in occupational hygiene with particular reference to asbestos. Previously he had been a scientific staff member of the Medical Research Council but took early retirement from the MRC to develop his current work. He first joined the MRC at a unit in Sheffield and then later transferred to the Toxicology Unit in Carshalton, now relocated to the University of Leicester. In the MRC Toxicology Unit he latterly worked on the toxicity of mineral fibres and particulates and was in charge of the Unit’s inhalation facilities.

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Dr Illing is currently a self-employed consultant in toxicology, microbiology and risk assessment for occupational health, product and process safety and environmental pollution and Principal of Paul Illing Consultancy Services. He is also an Honorary Lecturer in the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Manchester, and occasionally lectures at University of Birmingham and University of Surrey. Currently, he is Royal Society of Chemistry representative on the UK Government Chemicals Stakeholder Forum.

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George Kowalczyk is the Regional Toxicologist for the Health Protection Agency in the North West and is based  in the Manchester office of the HPA’s  Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE, Manchester)

George has over 30 years experience in toxicology and prior to moving to the NW in 2002, George was a Senior Toxicologist at the Department of Health. His work at DH was focussed on conducting health risk assessment of
chemical contaminants in the environment. He has also worked in environmental consultancy also has over 20 years experience as a toxicologist in the Coal Mining and the pharmaceutical industries.  His current interests in environmental toxicology are risks from low level asbestos exposure, contaminated land risk assessment and modelling of the fate of environmental pollutants in the body. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) a former chairman of the Toxicology Group, a Eurotox Registered Toxicologist (ERT) and a Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT).

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Camilla Pease is a European Registered Toxicologist, working as Principal Scientist in Human Health Toxicology for the Environment Agency, working on the topics of Air, Land and Water pollution. Prior to this role, she has 10 years experience working in the areas of human safety research and consumer safety risk assessment for Unilever’s global Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre. She holds a BSc Hons in Chemistry, Life Systems and Pharmaceuticals and a PhD in Chemistry (macromolecular crystallography) both from York University and began her career in toxicology within the Medical School of Imperial College London. She is experienced in human health safety/risk assessment across a broad range of industrial chemical exposure scenarios and has specific research expertise in skin toxicology, mechanistic toxicology, chemical biotransformation, analytical chemistry, absorption-distribution-metabolism-excretion (ADME), in vitro alternatives and human health risk assessment frameworks. She has worked in publishing as the Managing Editor of the publication ‘Macromolecular Structures’. As well as performing various roles on toxicology committees in the UK and EU during her career, she is currently co-editor of the British Toxicology Society Newsletter.

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Dr Roger Pullin is a Heath Policy Adviser with the Chemical Industries Association (CIA), the largest UK trade association representing the UK chemical industry. He is responsible for ensuring that the UK chemical industry is not unduly affected by proposed and existing UK & European policies in the areas of occupational health and environmental health. Part of his time is also seconded to the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) where he coordinates occupational health activities for member companies at the European level. Having worked for both the chemical industry (Stapro and Dow Corning) and the Chemical Hazards & Poisons Division of the Health Protection Agency, prior to joining the CIA, he now has an extremely wide perspective and understanding into commercial issues affecting the chemical industry and public health protection from chemical exposures. His doctoral research was into poly(itaconate) esters as marine antifoulants.

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Michael Quint is an environmental consultant with over 20 years experience of assessing chemicals in the environment, primarily focused on the risk assessment of contaminated land. He has worked in the USA and UK and has undertaken numerous projects for public and private sector clients. A registered expert witness, he has helped to develop government guidance in contaminated land risk assessment and has provided expert evidence to several Public Inquiries, a Civil Court, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and a Parliamentary Select Committee. His publications include "Environmental Impact of Chemicals: Assessment and Control" and he was a contributing author to Blackwells' "Handbook of Environmental Risk Assessment", the London Development Agency's "Investor's Guide to Brownfield Land" and Sweet and Maxwell's "Contaminated Land (Second Edition)". He is currently on the editorial board of "Land Contamination and Reclamation" and was a member of the Cabinet Office's SGV Task Force. He is a regular speaker at technical and legal conferences and has appeared as a guest on the BBC's Science View.

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Dr Martin Rose works for the Defra Central Science Laboratory (CSL) in York where he leads work in the environment, food and health area.  He was recently appointed Head of the UK National Reference Laboratory for chemicals in food (as required by each Member State under EU legislation). He has been involved with research on dioxins 1985 and since then has expanded his interests into the wider environmental contaminants area, including emerging contaminants (organofluorine compounds such as PFOS and brominated organic contaminants such as flame retardants and brominated dioxins).  He is responsible for the application of analytical chemistry to multi-disciplinary research projects looking at aspects such as environmental pathways, remediation, risk assessment methodologies, emergency response, bioanalytical methods, ecotoxicology, reproductive toxicology and identification and prioritisation schemes for emerging contaminants.

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Dr Smith is a molecular toxicologist with research interests in environmental chemicals. In particular, he is interested in genetically variable mechanisms of how chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated dioxins interact with iron homeostasis to cause malfunctions of haem metabolism and tumours.  Dr Smith also has interests in the risk assessment of chlorinated insecticides like DDT and in the use of genetics and toxicogenomics in toxicology studies. He is currently head of the Genetic Susceptibility Group at the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit, Leicester University and Honorary Lecturer in Pathology. Previous to joining the MRC, Dr Smith studied and worked in the biochemistry and chemistry departments of the Universities of Liverpool and Glasgow (respectively) on sterol metabolism in marine biochemistry and in human atherosclerosis.

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