Ovnair Sepai – National Hub Coordinator, Principal Toxicologist at UK Health Security Agency
National Hubs – integral to the success and sustainability of HBM in Europe – 27 April – 11:55 pm CEST
The National hubs have evolved over the 5 years of HBM4EU, they are integral to the success and sustainability of a HBM platform for Europe. This talk summarises some of the achievements of the National Hubs over the last 5 years and explores how the HBM studies have evolved at a national level. In some countries HBM is used as a tool for awareness raising and in other is it integrated into national policy. The talk will explore the advantages of a national programme and how HBM4EU has supported the development of national capacity and national policy development in the area of chemical safety.
Dr Ovnair Sepai is Principal Toxicologists with over 25 years’ experience in the development of human biomonitoring studies for both environmental and occupation health evaluation. She heads a team of toxicologists with a core remit to advise UK Government on the health impacts of chemicals in drinking water, waste management, contaminated soil, and consumer products. Dr Sepai represented the UK on a number of EU human biomonitoring projects including COPHES/DEMOCOPHES. She is the National Hub Coordinator and Grant Signatory for the UK in HBM4EU.
Disclaimer
The HBM4EU project was launched in 2016 with the aim of improving the collective understanding of human exposure to hazardous chemicals and developing HBM as an exposure assessment method. The project had €74m in funding and jointly implemented by 120 partners from 28 participating countries – 24 EU member states plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Israel and the European Environment Agency. One of its aims was to ensure the sustainability of HBM in the EU beyond 2021. The project ended in June 2022. The website will not be updated any longer, except the page on peer reviewed publications, but will be online until 2032.
