Assessing & Managing Real Life Risks from Chemical Mixtures

Professor Paul Leinster CBE is Professor of Environmental Assessment at Cranfield University. Prior to joining Cranfield he was Chief Executive of the Environment Agency from June 2008 to September 2015. He is a member of the government’s Natural Capital Committee, a Non-Executive Director of Flood Re, a Non-Executive Director of Delphic HSE a toxicology consultancy, Chair of the Bedfordshire Local Nature Partnership and a board member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Prior to joining the Environment Agency in 1998 Paul worked in the private sector for over 20 years including for BP, SmithKline Beecham and Schering Agrochemicals including on the assessment and control of exposures to chemicals in the workplace and the general environment.  

Juliette Legler is Professor of Toxicology and Environmental Health at the College of Health and Life Sciences, Brunel University London. She is Leader of the Environment and Health Theme, a multidisciplinary group of researchers within Brunel University’s Institute for Environment, Health and Societies. Prior to joining Brunel University London in January 2016, she was employed at the Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, where she was Deputy Head of the Department of Chemistry and Biology. From 2014-2015 she also served as Director of the SENSE Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment, a joint venture of the environmental research institutes of ten Dutch universities. Prof. Legler is a European Registered Toxicologist and served as Vice President of the Netherlands Society of Toxicology from 2015-2016. Her research focusses on the molecular mechanisms of toxicity of endocrine disrupting chemicals and the effects of exposures on the health of humans and wildlife. 

Alastair Lewis is professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of York and Science Director at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. His specialism is in atmospheric chemistry where he has worked on the development of novel instrumentation and sensors to study pollution and emissions and in 2013 led the establishment of the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, a joint research initiative of the University of York, NCAS and The Wolfson Foundation.   He has participated in > 25 major air pollution field projects from the polar regions to city centres, open oceans to tropical forests and is currently leading a major UK-China collaborative project studying air pollution processes in Beijing, bringing together 15 UK and Chinese research institutions. He has received several awards for his research including a Philip Leverhulme Prize, the 2012 Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Environment, Energy and Sustainability and their SAC Silver Medal for analytical science. He was listed in 2016 as one of the world’s 100 most influential analytical scientists.   He has written more than 240 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and has been a member of a number of international science advisory boards including with Defra, WMO and UNEP.

Ovnair Sepai has worked in academia and the public sector as an analytical chemist and toxicologist since completing her PhD at Royal Holloway College, London University in 1989.  Her first post doc was with the UK Medical Research Council toxicology Unit where she developed her skills in human biomonitoring in relation to assessing population exposures to chemicals and risk assessment.  This lead to a second post-doc at the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology in Wurzburg, Germany.  In 1994 Ovnair moved to Newcastle University to become a course director for a Master’s degree and to continue her interests in human biomonitoring.  At Newcastle University Ovnair gained a post graduate certificate in business management.  From 2000 till 2002 Ovnair worked as an education volunteer and course facilitator for VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) in Ethiopia.   Ovnair’s career after returning to the UK moved from academia to the Public sector working for the Health Protection Agency which was formed in 2003.  She worked her way up to Group Leader at the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental hazards (CRCE) now part of Public Health England.  Ovnair leads a team of 8 Toxicologists who’s remit spans from providing advice on the health impacts of chemicals to Government to delivering training to Master’s degree students in Public Health.  Ovnair has lead workshops and events for her group as well as for research projects.  Ovnair leads for PHE on a Pan-European project HBM4EU (www.HBM4EU.eu ) – which requires both scientific and leadership skills.  Ovnair is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.   Ovnair volunteers at a local music school where her daughter learns the Oboe and Recorder.  She also has two grownup step daughters.  Ovnair is learning Spanish and music theory – just for the fun of it.

Miranda is a Senior Scientist working in the Centre for Human Exposure Science of the Research Division at the Institute of Occupational Medicine.  She is an exposure scientist who tries to understand how people interact with their environment, and how this affects their exposure to both negative and positive aspects of the environment.   She has been involved in evaluating air pollution and physical activity sensors and is using a multi-stressor indoor and personal exposure assessment system, including sensor technology, that can be used in exposome studies as part of the Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large Population Surveys (HEALS) study, funded by the European Union.  Her work on environmental health extends also to Asia, as the Principal Investigator for the Air Pollution Impacts on Cardiopulmonary disease in Beijing: An integrated study of Exposure Science, Toxicogenomics & Environmental Epidemiology (APIC-ESTEE) funded by the British Natural Environment Research Council, the Medical Research Council, and China’s National Natural Science Foundation.  She is also involved in air pollution exposure and health projects in India and Thailand. Past projects include assessment of metals exposures of children living near a hazardous waste site in a former mining community and measurement and modelling of exposures and risk to volatile organic compounds.