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Federal and
local health and environmental regulatory agencies are not the only places where graduates
of environmental health sciences can secure employment in the area of exposure assessment
or risk assessment (RA), or otherwise in the field of toxicologic epidemiology. They can
also work for the industry as regulatory health scientists, since manufacturing companies
are required by laws and regulations to submit certain toxicity and safety data for
evaluation before their products can be marketed (in the United States). It is more than self-serving to discuss some of the educational and career opportunities in toxicologic epidemiology in this and the last few slides. The review actually has pointed out two important phenomena. The first is that at least in the USA, nearly all of the graduate degree programs in exposure assessment or RA are offered through an environmental health sciences department or division located typically at a school of public health. The second phenomenon is that these departments or divisions often include courses in environmental epidemiology and toxicology, and in some cases also in risk management and environmental health policy. Many job opportunities as toxicologists in exposure assessment or RA have been announced nationwide, but mostly only through Science and Nature, whose readers are largely scientists with little or no training in public health. If the use of these magazines is indeed the best recruitment means available in light of circulation and cost, then perhaps new and old graduates of a RA or related program need to be advised of this situation. |