Carcinogen Identification Committee

The Carcinogen Identification Committee is a group of expert scientists appointed by the Governor to identify chemicals that have been clearly shown through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles to cause cancer. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25249.8).

A Committee of Experts

The Carcinogen Identification Committee includes experts from among the following areas of specialization: epidemiology, oncology, pathology, medicine, public health, statistics, biology, toxicology, and related fields.

An Expert Determination

The committee meets at least once each calendar year.

The addition of a chemical to the Proposition 65 list by the committee requires three steps:

1. During the months prior to each meeting, scientists from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment prepare a hazard identification document that contains the scientific evidence on a chemical’s carcinogenicity. The public has an opportunity to submit relevant information to OEHHA that may be included in the document.  Once the document is completed, it is released to the public for a 45-day comment period.  Committee members then review the document as well as the public comments received.
2. At the meetings, committee members have a chance to hear public testimony on the chemical and then review, discuss and vote on the evidence they have seen and heard.
3. Members will vote to add a chemical to the list only if “it has been clearly shown through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles to cause cancer ….” (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25249.8).

The committee has developed guidance for its use in identifying chemicals for listing as “known to the state to cause cancer."

Members of the committee also have the authority to suggest and prioritize chemicals for future review. They also identify the “authoritative bodies” (such as the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer) whose formal identifications of carcinogens qualify chemicals for listing. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25249.8).

The Carcinogen Identification Committee Members Are:

• Ahmad Besaratinia has been a professor of research population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine since 2013. His research focuses on the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of carcinogenesis with a special emphasis on DNA damage and repair, mutagenesis, DNA methylation, and histone modifications. He received his doctorate in genetic toxicology and molecular epidemiology and his master’s degree in public health from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biology in the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope and held multiple positions there until 2012. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Epigenetics Society, and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

  Dr. Besaratinia was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2022.

• Jason Bush has served as chair of the Department of Biology and professor of cancer biology at California State University, Fresno since 2019. Prior to that, he served in the same department as an associate professor from 2012 to 2019, and an assistant professor from 2006 to 2012. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute from 2002 to 2006 and research assistant at the University of British Columbia from 1994 to 1997. He earned a Master of Science degree in zoology and a doctorate in experimental medicine from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Bush is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research, American Society for Cell Biology, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and US Human Proteome Organization.

  Dr. Bush was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2012.

• Catherine Crespi has been a professor of biostatistics at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2006. Crespi earned a doctorate in biostatistics and an MS in environmental health sciences from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a member of the University of California, Los Angeles Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Crespi has served on review panels for both the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee and the National Institutes of Health, and is also a member of the editorial board for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

  Dr. Crespi was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2019.

• David A. Eastmond is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Riverside, having previously served as professor and chair of the Department of Cell Biology & Neuroscience until 2020. His research has centered on the metabolism and chromosome-damaging effects of various environmental chemicals. He has also participated on a variety of advisory panels related to chemical mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and risk assessment including panels for the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer among others. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1987 to 1989, he served as an Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He recently served as the chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Toxicology Program.

  Dr. Eastmond was appointed to serve on the CIC in 1999.

• Joseph R. Landolph has been associate professor of molecular microbiology, immunology and pathology and associate professor of molecular pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Southern California since 1987. He is a member of the University of Southern California, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Keck School of Medicine. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of metallic compound-induced carcinogenesis. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Landolph has been a member of the Society of Toxicology since 1985.

  Dr. Landolph was appointed to serve on the CIC in 1993.

• ​Dana Loomis is Director of the Plumas County, California, Public Health Agency, and research professor at the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Desert Research Institute. From 2007 to 2010 and from 2018 to 2021, he was professor of environmental health at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Community Health Sciences. He also served as head of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Monographs Program in 2017, and deputy head from 2012 to 2017. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Loomis was professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and from 1989 to 2006 he was professor of epidemiology and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Loomis is a member of the International Commission for Occupational Safety and Health. He earned a doctorate in epidemiology, MPH in environmental sciences and an MS in geology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  Dr. Loomis was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2018.

• Thomas McDonald is a Research Fellow with the Clorox Company, serving as the technical lead for Product Safety R&D. At Clorox since 2014, he drives the procedures that the company uses to assess the safety of cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic and dietary supplement products. From 2006 to 2014, Dr. McDonald designed and coordinated global preclinical safety programs as a Senior Staff Scientist or Principal Research Scientist for Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. He was Manager of Toxicology from 2005-2006 at Arysta LifeScience North America. He served as a toxicologist in the Cancer Unit of OEHHA from 1994 to 2005. Dr. McDonald earned a doctorate in environmental health sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley.

  Dr. McDonald was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2017.

• Mariana C. Stern is a cancer epidemiologist and has been a professor of preventive medicine and urology at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine since 2001, and the Associate Director of Population Sciences for the university’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also the Ira Goodman Chair in Cancer Research at Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Stern was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 1997 to 2001. She earned a doctorate in cancer biology from the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center and an MS in biology from the University of Buenos Aires, School of Science. She has served on panels for the evaluation of carcinogenesis and risk assessment for the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

  Dr. Stern was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2018.

• Sophia Wang is an epidemiologist with expertise in molecular epidemiology and cancer etiology and has been a professor at City of Hope National Medical Center since 2009. Prior to joining the City of Hope, Dr. Wang was an intramural investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on evaluating the role of environmental and genetic risk factors for developing lymphomas and other types of cancer, as well as investigating cancer risks in populations living in California. Dr. Wang completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer. She received her undergraduate training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  She serves as a Steering Committee member to the California Teachers Study cohort, where she evaluates the causes of multiple cancers. She is also an active researcher in large international consortia, including the International Lymphoma Epidemiology (InterLymph) Consortium, for which she served as chair in 2013, and the National Institutes of Health’s Cancer Genome Atlas Cervix Working Group.

  Dr. Wang was appointed to serve on the CIC in 2022.