[X] CLOSEMAIN MENU

[X] CLOSEIN THIS SECTION

Diabetes and Obesity: Evaluating the Science on Chemical Contributors

May 12, 2011
1:00 pm US Eastern Time

Slides & Resources

Speaker Presentation Slides

Dr. Heindel: Opening slides

Dr. Thayer: PowerPoint slides

Dr. Heindel: PowerPoint slides

Dr. Blumberg: PowerPoint slides (PDF)

Other Resources

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and the Developmental Programming of Adipogenesis and Obesity, Amanda Janesick and Bruce Blumberg, Birth Defects Research (Part C), 2011

National Toxicology Program (NTP) Workshop on the Role of Environmental Chemicals in the Development of Diabetes and Obesity
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) held a workshop to review the evidence that some environmental chemicals may contribute to diabetes and obesity. The literature review documents, breakout group discussions, and additional resources are available on the website.

CHE Diabetes-Obesity Spectrum working group resources:

The Obesogen Hypothesis, Health and Environment, March 25, 2011

Listen to Recording


Emerging  scientific studies suggest environmental chemicals may be contributing  factors to the epidemics of diabetes and obesity. The National Toxicology  Program (NTP) headquartered at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) sponsored a workshop in January 2011 to  evaluate the science associating exposure to certain chemicals or chemical  classes with the development of diabetes and/or obesity in humans. In a variety of targeted plenary and workgroup sessions, participants  evaluated the strength/weaknesses, consistency, and biological plausibility  of findings reported in humans and experimental animals for certain  environmental chemicals.

On this national conference call, CHE hosted three leaders in this growing field of interest who were also instrumental in the shaping the scope of the NTP workshop. They presented a summary of the conference findings, highlighted current research indicating possible links between some chemicals and diabetes and obesity, and discussed future plans to address research gaps, including ongoing evaluation of relevant pathways and biological assays for the Toxicology Testing in the 21st Century high throughput screening initiative (“Tox21”).

Featured Speakers

  • Kristina Thayer, PhD, Director of the  Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human  Reproduction (CERHR)
  • Bruce Blumberg, PhD, Professor, Department of Developmental and Cell Biology and  Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine
  • Jerry Heindel, PhD, Program Administrator and acting Branch Chief in the NIEHS  Division of Extramural Research and Training  (DERT)