Present:
Syed Ali, State Water Resources Control Board
Steve Book, Dept. of Health Services
Dan Chang, UC Davis
Arthur Fong, IBM
Tom Gelzleichter, Toxicologist with Genentech
Kean Goh, Dept of Pesticide Regulation
Tobi Jones, Dept of Pesticide Regulation
John Knezovich, TSR&TP Director
Steve Macaulay, Calif. Urban Water Agencies
Cathie Magowan, UC Office of the President
Marion Miller, TSR&TP Associate Director
Simon Rasin, UC Office of the President
David Siegal, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
Linda Smith (for Richard Bode), Air Resources Board
Lisa Stevenson, TSR&TP Program Manager
Leslie Stewart, League of Women Voters
Jim Stratton, Committee Chair, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
Mika Pringle Tolson, TSR&TP Technical Support Coordinator
Winona Victery, US EPA Region 9
Kip Wiley, CA Senate Office of Research

Not Present:
Marc Aarens, UC Office of the President
Martin Bloes, Geomatrix Consultants
Bruce LaBelle, Dept. of Toxic Substances Control
Charles Lapin, Lapin & Associates
Laureen O'Connell, UC Office of the President
Suzanne Paulson, TSR&TP Associate Director
Zach Wong, Chevron Texaco Energy Technology Company

Jim Stratton brought the meeting to order at 10:05am and asked the host, Steve Macaulay, to give a short introduction to the California Urban Water Agency. Macaulay welcomed the Advisory Committee to his building and offered the conference room for future meetings.

Cathie Magowan began the introductions and briefly explained the origins of the TSR&TP. It was created in 1985 by a legislative mandate and is a line item in the UC budget. The program received glowing reviews from the Multicampus Research Unit (MRU) 15 year review that was completed recently. She ended by saying that the Office of Research at the UC Office of the President is very fond of this program. She introduced Simon Rasin as the new peer review and conflict of interest coordinator between UC and state agencies. Magowan added that Rasin is a medical doctor from the Ukraine and a current graduate student in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley.

Stratton asked the committee to review the minutes from the fall meeting, reminding everyone that they are posted on the TSR&TP website. Steve Book motioned to approve, and Stratton seconded. All were in favor and none opposed.
John Knezovich began the report from the Director’s Office with a description of TSR&TP's current funding programs - lead campus programs and investigator, team, and student grants. He further explained the lead campus concept as a group of investigators and students focused on a particular area of toxics research. Most of the funding in these programs goes to support graduate students. Consortia of campuses compete to receive about $300k per year. Recently, the Executive Committee decided to give these programs ending dates. The intent is to create opportunities for new programs, but we also want to establish centers of excellence.

Knezovich solicited input on this year's lead campus proposals to help with the Executive Committee's deliberations in April. The committee discussed each proposal and the following members agreed to serve as ad hoc reviewers for select proposals:

Knezovich thanked everyone for the input, especially those who volunteered to ad hoc review. He said the next time the committee meets, at least one of these will be funded as a new program.

Knezovich continued the Director’s Office Report. We have a new Associate Director for the southern campuses, Suzanne Paulson. She came highly recommended from former Associate Director Arthur Winer.
Stratton directed the committee to talk about emerging state issues and how UC can assist state, public and private interest needs.

Art Fong said the issue of biomonitoring in California came up in several recent industrial meetings, with everyone tracking the progress of Senate Bill 600, the Healthy Californians Biomonitoring Program. Some in industry are looking for clarification on the procedure that will be used to identify priority chemicals for biomonitoring, for example, will biomonitoring focus on chemicals that have received wide media coverage, such as flame retardants in urine or breast milk. Industry is also concerned about how the state will make use of the data, recommending the development of scientifically sound procedures for interpreting the biomonitoring results.

Leslie Stewart commented that indoor air and green building issues are other areas where we don't have enough information. There's not enough known about the ingredients in various consumer products that go into a building for people to ascertain whether or not the products are reasonably green or how long a new building should be ventilated before being occupied. People are also concerned about sick building syndrome.

Stratton said he's concerned about transient chemicals at low levels. Perhaps this is something the metabolomics researchers can capture.

Tom Gelzleichter said Genetech has concerns about the fate of drugs in the environment and occupational health issues with the doctors and nurses who administer them. There's particular concern about oncology drugs and their fate.

David Siegal said environmental monitoring is a big problem. It’s very expensive and is focused on immediate needs instead of helping the environment overall. We need better measurements of environmental quality and easier and cheaper ways of monitoring.

Tobi Jones commented that an important area is assessing the risk of unrelated compounds to which people are exposed and looking at cumulative impact and mixtures of toxics. OEHHA had a workshop on this a few years ago and brought in some excellent speakers.

The committee broke for lunch at 12:15pm and reconvened at 1pm. Dan Chang gave a presentation on the Superfund basic research program at UC Davis and the longstanding relationship between this project and the TSR&TP. He asked the committee if they would consider serving as the advisory committee to the Superfund program as well. The committee's role would be to help identify the appropriate audiences to which the Superfund project should translate their research. Stratton suggested Chang put together the findings and summarize them on his website for the committee to view. Chang agreed to do this.

Lisa Stevenson reminded members to RSVP for the Symposium April 22-23. It will be held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Sacramento Convention Center in downtown Sacramento.

Magowan gave the update from the UC Office of the President. There was a small budget cut this year for MRUs and a portion of that was absorbed by Provost Coleman's office. She doesn't anticipate any more cuts for next year. The15 year MRU reviews have been eliminated, but there will be 5 year sunset reviews. UCOP is hoping to do all the reviews online and look at the entire MRU enterprise over the course of a year. MRUs have always been categorized by their source of funding and academic senate review, but now they will be looked at functionally. Reviewers will consider such things as whether the programs are still relevant, serving the needs of the state, and how many graduate students are supported. If continuation is approved, there will be 5 more years of funding. There may be recommendations to increase the budget, decrease the budget, or defund the program. She stressed that the TSR&TP is not in danger. UCOP plans to solicit input from the state agencies about relevance. The reviews will probably start in 2006 or 2007 and TSR&TP will be one of the first to be reviewed.

Future agenda items and presentations for the next meeting were discussed. Stratton suggested Dick Jackson, the state public health officer to talk on the built environment. Knezovich recommended that we bring in the PI of the new lead campus. That would be an excellent time to have the committee interact with that person. Stratton concurred.
Stratton announced that after 10 years on this committee, he is stepping down as chair. He said he hopes his attempts at chairing have been laced with humor and insight. Knezovich thanked Stratton for his service and the excellent job he has done prodding members for their input at the appropriate time.

The committee agreed to hold the fall meeting at this same location. Macaulay said he'd provide a projector for presentations and send detailed parking directions.

The meeting adjourned at 1:40pm.

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