Two UCSF Faculty Named to State Committee that Identifies Toxic Chemicals

California Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed two UCSF faculty members to a state committee that identifies chemicals known to cause reproductive toxicity.

Laurence Baskin, MD

Laurence Baskin, MD, chief of pediatric urology at UCSF, and Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, director of UCSF’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), were named on Nov. 20 to the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee.

The independent committee, which operates within the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, was formed under Proposition 65, a 1986 law aimed at protecting the state’s drinking water sources from harmful chemicals.

As part of the law, the governor is required to publish annually a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. The Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, along with the Carcinogen Identification Committee, is comprised of scientists and health professionals who decide which chemicals are added to the list.

Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH

Baskin, 53, has been on UCSF’s faculty since 1993 and was named chief of pediatric urology in 1997. He’s been a primary author on more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, two dozen invited chapters and is editor of the Handbook of Pediatric Urology and Hinman’s Atlas of Pediatric Urology. His urologic research has received funding by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundaton.

Baskin is currently president of the Society for Pediatric Urology and was previously president of the Society for Fetal Urology, the Asia-Pacific Association of Pediatric Urology, the Society of Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgeons and the American Association of Pediatric Urology.

Woodruff, 49, is a professor in UCSF’s Department of Obstetricians, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, which houses the PRHE, founded in 2007 to translate health research into clinical care and public policy that prevents exposures to harmful chemicals in the environment. Her research areas include evaluating prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals and related adverse pregnancy outcomes, and characterizing developmental risks. She has written numerous peer-reviewed articles and invited book chapters, and serves as an editor of Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility and an associate editor of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Before joining UCSF’s faculty, Woodruff was a scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1994 to 2007. Woodruff is a member of the Society of Toxicology and the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology.