George M. Gray

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George M. Gray is Lecturer on Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Executive Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.

In 2005 he was nominated by the Bush adminsitration to be the second-in-command at the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. [1]

History

He completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Michigan in Biology in 1985, and a Master of Science in 1988 and a PH.D. in 1989 in Toxicology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York. Gray's doctorate dissertation was on "Growth Factor Signal Transduction and Interaction with the v-src Oncogene Product.

According to an extensive biographical note submitted to the USFDA, Gray was subsequentll a Research Fellow, Program in Environmental Health and Public Policy, Interdisciplinary Programs in Health, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston between 1989-1991, a Research Associate, Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston between 1991-1994 and an Instructor in Risk Analysis, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston MA. 1994 - 1999

Between 2001 and November 2003 Gray was the Acting Director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA). Following the appointment of James Hammitt as the Director in late 2003, Gray was apopinted to the newly created position of Executive Director. "Gray will have responsibility for HCRA's operational management and will play a key role in efforts to develop financial support," the release stated. [2]

According to biographical profile on the HSPH website, Gray's "primary research interests are risk characterization and risk communication with a focus on food safety and agriculture and chemicals in the environment." [3]

"He has published on both the scientific bases of human health risk assessment and its application to risk policy with a focus on risk/risk tradeoffs in risk management George teaches toxicology and risk assessment at the Harvard School of Public Health to both graduate students and participants in the School's Continuing Professional Education program" his biographical note states.

In August 1999, Gray explained to a House of Representatives hearing that bans on pesticides were not always warranted. Gray wanted to explain about some work he was doing with a colleague "in which we are evaluating the risk/risk tradeoffs that would be involved with a ban on the organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. This is work that is funded by the American Farm Bureau Federation. Our study hasn't yet been peer reviewed, but there are a couple of comments that I can tell you. First, it is very difficult to estimate any benefit to public health that would occur from a ban on OPs (organophosphates -ed) and carbamates. Second, countervailing risks do exist and will offset many of the positive effects that a ban might have and might even make things worse." [4]

In January 2000, Gray was a keynote speaker at the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual meeting in Houston, Texas on "Sound Science and Good Analysis-Agriculture's Ally in the Regulatory Debate". The biographical note for Gray stated "regulatory decisions affecting agriculture are often made using poor or inadequate science and information. In 1999, Dr. Gray completed work for Farm Bureau examining potential pesticide health effects caused by regulatory decisions under the Food Quality Protection Act. This conference will examine those results as well as the need to use more and better scientific information in the risk-assessment process". [5]

In a submission to the Office of Management and Budget on a review the Peer Review procedures, Gray opposed a policy that required the disqualification of reviewers that had a conflict of interest. "I prefer the notion of disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, including work as an expert witness and institutional funding, to strict rules of disqualification in the required agency guidelines (Section 4(b)). Complete and widespread disclosure will allow interested parties to make judgments about the appropriateness of reviewers. Although I recognize that it will sometime be necessary and appropriate, disqualification has the potential to raise questions of agency bias in the choice of experts," Gray wrote. [6]

Gray on mad cow disease

In 1998 Gray headed a team from the HCRA and the Harvard School of Public Health to undertake an assessment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the risk of a major outbreak of BSE. [7]

In November 2003, following controversy after the discovery of a BSE infected cow from Canada in the northern 2003 summer, Gray released a reassuring report commissioned by and for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the propects of the spread of mad cow disease in the US. "The 1997 U.S. imposition of a ban on feeding rendered ruminant protein back to other ruminants essentially chokes off and then reverses any possible spread of the disease. Even accounting for incomplete compliance with that feed ban, the HCRA analysis found that had infected animals or contaminated feed come in from Canada or elsewhere, the spread of BSE in the American cattle population would have been reversed by now and that human exposure to contaminated animal tissue would have been very low," the report claimed. [8]

The USDA issued a media release the same day approvingly citing the study. "The protection systems now in place, the (HCRA) study concludes, should largely keep BSE out of the country and prevent it from spreading if it ever did enter the United States," the USDA media release stated. [9]

Affiliations

  • Gray serves on:
  • the Risk Assessment Task Force of the Society of Toxicology;
  • the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Food Advisory Committee
  • the NIEHS National Advisory Environmental Health Science Council.
  • According to a biographical note submitted to the USDA Gray has given testimony to a number of government committees including:
  • Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Food Advisory Committee
  • Department of Health and Human Services National Advisory Environmental Health Science Council
  • Society of Toxicology - Risk Assessment Task Force
  • International Food Information Council Foundation - Board of Trustees
  • American Water Works Association Research Foundation - Project Advisory Committee (Quantifying Health Risk Reduction Benefits)
  • Environmental Literacy Council - Executive Committee
  • Public Health Service Ad Hoc Study Section - Mechanistic Risk Assessment Methods (CDC/NIOSH RFP)
  • Editorial Board - Human and Ecological Risk Assessment
  • Editorial Board - Journal of Risk Research
  • Guest Editor - Human and Ecological Risk Assessment Special Issue "Probabilistic Methods in Risk Assessment"
  • Peer Reviewer - Toxicological Sciences, Risk Analysis, Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, Journal of Risk Research, Risk: Health, Safety and Environment, numerous EPA documents.
  • Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment "Bringing Sound Science and Economics to Risk Analysis" Workshop for Federal Judges (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001)
  • Society for Risk Analysis Continuing Education Workshop - Biologically-Based Dose Response Workshop (1997)
  • Society of Toxicology Continuing Education Course - Overview of Uncertainty Analysis (1998); Risk Communication (2000).[11]

Evidence to government committees

According to a biographical note submitted to the USDA Gray has given testimony to a number of government committees including:

  • In June 2003 Gray testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs on a proposed restructuring of the Environmental Protection Agency [12]
  • In December 2003 Gray made a submission on the proposed Peer Review and Information Quality Guidelines[13]
  • "Testified before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry on implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 in August, 1999 [14] *"Testified before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on "The Science of Risk Assessment: Implications for Federal Regulation" July 15, 1998 [15]
  • "Testified before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on the use of sound science and risk analysis in federal agency regulations (April, 1997)";
  • "Testified before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Health and Environment on H.R. 1627, the Food Quality Protection Act of 1995 (June, 1995)"; and
  • "Extensive testimony in Massachusetts on legislation related to risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication (1995-2001)". [16]

Publications

According to a biographical note submitted to the USDA Gray has given testimony to a number of government committees including:

  • Gray, G.M., and Ropeik, D. (2002) Risk Communication and Dealing with the Dangers of Fear. Health Affairs 21(6):106-116
  • Habtemariam, T., Tameru, B., Nganwa, D., Ayanwale, L., Ahmed, A., Oryang, D., AbdelRahman, H., Gray, G., Cohen, J., Kreindel, S. (2002) Application of Systems analysis in Modeling the Risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Kybernetes. 31:1380-1390.
  • Gray, G.M., Huang, H., Linkov, I., Polkanov, M., and Wilson, R. (2002) The Effect of Different Tumor Groupings on Findings of Anticarcinogenic Responses in Long-Term Rodent Bioassays. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 36:139-148
  • Kuo, J., Linkov, I., Rhomberg, L, Polkanov, M., Gray, G.M., and Wilson, R. (2002) Absolute Risk or Relative Risk? A Study of Intraspecies and Interspecies Extrapolation of Chemical-Induced Cancer Risks. Risk Analysis 22:141-157
  • Gray GM, Baskin SI, Charnley G, Cohen JT, Gold LS, Kerkvliet NI, Koenig HM, Lewis SC, McClain RM, Rhomberg LR, Snyder JW, Weekley LB. (2001) The Annapolis accords on the use of toxicology in risk assessment and decision-making: An Annapolis Center workshop report. Toxicology Methods 11 (3): 225-231
  • Gray, G.M., and Hammitt, J.K. (2000) Risk/Risk Trade-offs in Pesticide Regulation: An Exploratory Analysis of the Public Health Effects of a Ban on Organophosphate and Carbamate Pesticides. Risk Analysis 20:665-680
  • Gray, G.M. (2000) Rodent Cancer Bioassays - Is Body Weight Depression Hormetic? Human & Experimental Toxicology 19:332-334
  • Gray, G.M., Linkov, I., Polkanov, M., and Wilson, R. (2000) Liver Adenomas and Carcinomas: Correlations and Relationship to Body Weight in Long-Term Rodent Cancer Bioassays. Toxicology and Industrial Health, 16, 1-13.
  • Linkov, I., Polkanov, M., Wilson, R., and Gray, G.M. (2000) Correlations Among Tumor Types in Mouse Cancer Bioassays: Liver Adenomas, Liver Carcinomas, Leukemias and Lymphomas. Toxicology and Industrial Health 16:16-40
  • Gray, G.M., Goldstein, B.D., Bailar, J., Davis, D.L., Delzell, E., Dost, F., Greenberg, R.S., Hatch, M., Hodgson, E., Ibrahim, M.A., Lamb, J., Lavy, T., Mandel, J., Monson, R., Robson, M., Shore, R., and Graham, J.D. (2000) The Federal Government's Agricultural Health Study: A Critical Review with Suggested Improvements. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 6:47-72
  • Linkov, I., Wilson, R. and Gray, G.M. (1999). Erratum to Toxicological Sciences 43:1-9 and Toxicological Sciences 43:10-18. Toxicological Sciences 48:141-142.
  • Gray, G.M., Allen, J.C., Burmaster, D.E., Gage, S.H., Hammitt, J.K., Kaplan, S., Keeney, R.L., Morse, J.G., North, D.W., Nyrop, J.P., Stahevitch, A., and Williams, R. (1998) Principles for Conduct of Pest Risk Analyses: Report of an Expert Workshop. Risk Analysis 18:773-780
  • Linkov, I., Wilson, R., and Gray, G.M. (1998) Anticarcinogenic Responses in Rodent Bioassays are Not Explained by Random Effects. Toxicological Sciences 43:1-9
  • Linkov, I., Wilson, R., and Gray, G.M. (1998) Weight and Survival Depression in Rodent Bioassays With and Without Tumor Decreases. Toxicological Sciences 43:10-18
  • Ohanian, E.V., Moore, J.A., Fowle, R. J. III, Omenn, G.S., Lewis, S.C., Gray, G.M., and North, D.W. (1997) Risk Characterization: A Bridge to Informed Decision Making. Fundamental and Applied Toxicology 39:81-88
  • Gray, G.M., Li, Ping, Shlyakhter, I., Wilson, R. (1995) An Empirical Examination of Factors Influencing Prediction of Carcinogenic Hazard Across Species. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 22:283-291
  • Gray, G.M., and Hartwell, J.K. (1995) The Chemical Substitution Tree: A Framework to Evaluate Risk in Chemical Substitution Decisions. Pollution Prevention Review 5:7-17
  • Smith, A.E., Gray, G.M., and Evans, J.S. (1995) The Ability of Predicted Internal Dose Measures to Reconcile Tumor Bioassay Data for Chloroform. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 21:339-351
  • Evans, J.S., Gray, G.M., Sielken, R.L., Jr., Smith, A.E., Valdez-Flores, C., and Graham, J.D. (1994) Use of Probabilistic Expert Judgment in Uncertainty Analysis of Carcinogenic Potency. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 20:15-36
  • Evans, J.S., Graham, J.D., Gray, G.M., and Sielken, R.L., Jr. (1994) A Distributional Approach to Characterizing Low-Dose Cancer Risk. Risk Analysis 14:25-34
  • Laden, F., and Gray, G.M. (1993) Toxics Use Reduction: Pro and Con. Risk: Issues in Health and Safety 4:213-234
  • Gray, G.M., Cohen, J.T., and Graham, J.D. (1993) The Challenge of Risk Characterization: Current Practice and Future Directions. Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements 101:203-208
  • Rosenthal, A., Gray, G.M., and Graham, J.D. (1992) Legislating Acceptable Cancer Risk from Exposure to Toxic Chemicals. Ecology Law Quarterly 19:269-362
  • Evans, J.S., Graham, J.D., Gray, G.M., Hollis, A., Ryan, B., Smith, A., Smith M., and Taylor, A. (1992) Summary of Workshop to Review an OMB Report on Risk Assessment and Management. Risk: Issues in Health and Safety 3:71-84
  • Gray, G.M., and Graham, J.D. (1991) Risk Assessment and Clean Air Policy. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 10:286-295
  • Gray, G.M., and Macara, I.G. (1989) Serum-stimulated Phosphatidylinositol Turnover is Enhanced in 3T3 Cells with Active pp60v-src. Oncogene 4:1213-1217
  • Gray, G.M., Wei, C., and Macara, I.G. (1989) Specific Desensitization of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor by pp60v-src. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 40: 271-278
  • Gray, G.M., and Macara, I.G. (1988) The pp60v-src Tyrosine Kinase Desensitizes Epidermal Growth Factor Binding to 3T3 Fibroblasts by Two Distinct Protein Kinase C Independent Mechanisms. Journal of Biological Chemistry 263:10714-10719
  • Macara, I.G., and Gray, G.M. (1987) Vanadate-Activated Calcium Influx in A431 Cells Is Dependent on the Plasma Membrane Potential. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 34:125-128

BOOKS, CHAPTERS, REPORTS and MONOGRAPHS

  • Joshua T. Cohen, Keith Duggar, George M. Gray, Silvia Kreindel, Hatim Gubara, Tsegaye HabteMariam, David Oryang, Berhanu Tameru. A Simulation Model for Evaluating the Potential for Spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy to Animals or to People in Prions and Mad Cow Disease (I. Krull, ed.) Macell Dekker, Marcel Dekker, New York, NY (In Press)
  • Courtney, A.K., Porretta, M., Cohen, J.T., Gray, G.M., Kreindel, S., and Gallagher, D.L. (2003) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: Risk Assessment and Governmental Policy in Microbial Food Safety in Animal Agriculture (M.E. Torrence and R.E. Isaacson, eds.) Iowa State Press, Ames IA
  • Joshua T. Cohen, Keith Duggar, George M. Gray, Silvia Kreindel, Hatim Gubara, Tsegaye HabteMariam, David Oryang, Berhanu Tameru (2001) Evaluating the Potential for Spread of BSE in the United States. Report to US Department of Agriculture
  • Gray, G.M., and Hammitt, J.K. (2000) Risk Tradeoffs in Pesticide Regulation: Substitutes and Income Effects in Foresight and Precaution (Cottam, Harvey, Pape and Tait, eds.) Balkema Press, Rotterdam.
  • Gray, G.M. (1999) Toxic Pollution from Powerplants: Large Emissions, Little Risk. Risk in Perspective (Volume 7, Issue 2). Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Boston, MA
  • Gray, G.M., and Graham, J.D. (1998) The Agricultural Health Study: Strengths and Limitations. Risk in Perspective (Volume 6, Issue 9). Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Boston, MA
  • Gray, G.M., Saligman, L., and Graham, J.D. (1997) Risk Assessment and the Accelerated Phase-out of Lead in Gasoline in The Greening of Industry (Graham, J.D. and Hartwell, J.K., eds) Harvard University Press.
  • Gray, G.M., Jeffery, W.G., and Marchant, G.E. (1997) Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Non-Ferrous Metals: Realizing the Benefits and Managing the Risks. Book published by International Council on Metals and the Environment, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
  • Gray, G.M. (1997) Forget Chemical Use, Let's Report Risk! Risk in Perspective (Volume 5, Issue 4). Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Boston, MA
  • Gray, G.M. (1996) Key Issues in Environmental Risk Comparisons: Removing Distortions and Ensuring Fairness. Reason Foundation Policy Study No. 205. Reason Foundation, Los Angeles, CA.
  • Gray, G.M., and Graham, J.D. (1995) Risk-Risk Tradeoffs in Pesticide Regulation in Weighing the Risks (Graham, J.D. and Wiener, J., eds.) Harvard University Press.
  • Gray, G.M. (1994) Complete Risk Characterization. Risk in Perspective (Volume 2, Number 4). Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Boston, MA
  • Gray, G.M., and Graham, J.D. (1993) Intuitive Toxicology: Comments on Public Perceptions and the Role of Institutional Affiliation in Expert Opinions. Comments on Toxicology 4:501-504
  • Evans, J.S., Graham, J.D., Gray, G.M., Sielken, R.L., Jr., and Smith, A.E. (1993) The Likelihood of Alternative Carcinogenic Potencies: Uncertainty Analysis of Chloroform. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Safety of Water Disinfection , ILSI Press, Washington, D.C.
  • Gray, G.M., and Graham, J.D. (1993) Optimal use of "Toxic Chemicals" Risk in Perspective (Volume 1, Number 2). Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Boston, MA
  • Graham, J.D., and Gray, G.M. (1992) Air Toxics: Characterizing the Risks. in Toxic Air Pollutants from Mobile Sources, Air and Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 43-52
  • Macara, I.G., Gray, G.M., Gaut, J., Coco, A., Wingrove, T., Faletto, D., and Wolfman, A. (1989) Growth Factors, Oncogenes, and Protein Kinase C. in Cell Calcium Metabolism, (G. Fiskum, ed.) Plenum Publishing Corp. 249-254
  • Macara, I.G., and Gray, G.M. (1988) Characterization of the Epidermal Growth Factor- and Vanadate-Activated Calcium Influx in A431 Cells. in Growth Factors, Tumor Promoters, and Cancer Genes, Alan R. Liss, Inc. 233-238
  • Macara, I.G., Gray, G.M., Gaut, J., Coco, A., Wingrove, T., Faletto, D., and Wolfman, A. (1987) Growth Factors, Oncogenes, and Protein Kinase C. Current Communications in Molecular Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, Cold Spring Harbor, NY [17]

External links

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