Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances appoints new members
18 August 2008
Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced that a new Chair and four new members have been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances.
The new Chair is Professor Stephen Holgate MD DSc FRCP FMedSci FRSA, Medical Research Council Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton.
The new members are: Dr Alistair Boxall, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of York;
Dr Gill Clare, Independent Consultant in genotoxicology; Dr Sophie Rocks, Toxicologist at Cranfield University; and Professor Richard Shore, Ecotoxicologist and Section Head of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Hilary Benn said, "The new Chair and members will bring further expertise and experience to the committee, which is responsible for providing rigorous scientific advice on all matters relating to hazardous chemicals, including nanomaterials."
The appointments, which take effect from 1 July 2008, are for a term of three years. The appointments were made through a process of open competition.
The Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances will maintain its statutory role under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 of advising on proposals to ban or place restrictions on chemicals in the UK or to require information about them. In addition, the Committee will continue to offer advice to the UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum on the hazard and risk posed by chemicals to inform their position on priority. The ACHS also maintains its role of advising Ministers on the risks posed by nanotechnologies.