Member SpotlightsFrom Practicing Veterinary Medicine to Setting Standards for Safer Chemicals: A Toxicologist Dedicated to Improving Animal and Human Health Daljit S. Sawhney, DVM, M.Sc., Ph.D., DABT A Member Since April 2003  Dr. Daljit Sawhney’s interest in veterinary medicine grew out of his desire to assist poor farmers in his native India. He specialized in the reproductive physiology of farm animals. To complement his research in this area, he also taught veterinary medicine at Punjab University. He emphasized to his students the importance of observation in diagnosing illness and evaluating its subsequent treatment in animals. Upon coming to the United States, Dr. Sawhney became an instructor of veterinary medicine at the University of Nevada where he also earned a Master of Science degree. He enjoyed his teaching responsibilities since his classroom instruction was coupled with supervising his students’ participation in animal clinics.When the opportunity arose to take an industrial position in the food industry, Dr. Sawhney moved to upstate New York where he became the director of research and development for a technical laboratory. His lab conducted chemical analyses of animal feed and helped local farmers troubleshoot nutritional problems with their livestock. He also did extensive work on food microbiology. His area of specialty was aflatoxins. This interest in aflatoxins led Dr. Sawhney to pursue graduate studies at Cornell University where he earned a Ph.D. for studying different types of mold. His work centered on developing a better understanding of their various metabolic pathways and their production of mycotoxins, including aflatoxin. After his graduate training, Dr. Sawhney and was accepted to a prestigious position as a toxicologist/pathologist for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the mid-1970’s, which is a governmental agency. While at the FDA he assessed the effects natural food toxicants had on human health using toxicological data as well as the results from epidemiological studies. He concentrated on investigating the consequences these toxicants had on human reproduction and development as well as any resulting carcinogenicity resulting from these compounds. His research assisted in the identification of the estrogen receptor as a key receptor for many kinds of toxins. Dr. Sawhney was instrumental in helping develop national and international human health programs based upon the results of this research. After four years at the FDA, Dr. Sawhney was recruited to come and work at another governmental agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he continues to provide his expertise as a senior toxicologist. At present he is responsible for reviewing a variety of data to assess human health risks from the exposure to chemicals. Dr. Sawhney is especially interested in neurotoxicity and the effects chemicals have on reproductive health. He has helped develop and harmonize national and international, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), health effects testing guidelines. He has served on several working groups with the chemical industry to address issues related to making safer chemicals, especially high production volume (HPV) chemicals. HPV chemicals are those that are manufactured in or imported into the United States in amounts equal to or greater than one million pounds per year. His work is part of the Screening Information Data Sets (SIDS) Program and involves the collection of existing test data for HPV chemicals. This data includes information on the chemical identity, physical characteristics, sources and levels of exposure, environmental fate and pathways, and ecotoxicological and toxicological data. Dr. Sawhney enjoys cooking, dancing, hiking, landscaping and getting closer to nature. ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Member Spotlights ] |
|
