SDA Fall Meeting Features Top FDA Official and EPA Science Advisor

The Food and Drug Administration’s top official and the Environmental Protection Agency’s senior science advisor are among the speakers scheduled to appear at The Soap and Detergent Association’s (SDA) Fall Meeting, October 1-3, at the Arlington Hilton and Towers, Arlington, VA. The meetings are open to all SDA members.

FDA deputy commissioner Lester Crawford will serve as the luncheon speaker on October 2. Dr. Crawford, the senior official in charge at FDA, will discuss the agency’s top priorities and take questions from SDA members on issues important to the cleaning products industry.

Dr. Paul Gilman, EPA’s top science advisor and the Agency’s assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development, will address SDA members during a special speakers session the morning of October 2. Gilman will be one of two speakers discussing the field of genomics and how it may impact regulation and public policy. Dr. Gilman chaired a science policy council that recently presented an interim genomics policy at EPA. He previously was director of policy planning for Celera Genomics, the company known for having decoded the human genome.

Also speaking on the topic will be David Rejeski, director, foresight and governance project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Mr. Rejeski, who previously worked in the Council of Environmental Quality and the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, is the author of a new Risk Policy Report article, “Exploring the Genomics Frontier.”

The 8 a.m. speaker session will kick off with an intriguing topic, “Worth the Risk? Communicating Cleaning Product Benefits in a Post-Anthrax World.” Bob Howard, who spent 12 years as a crisis and risk communicator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will shed light for SDA members on successfully preparing and executing communication strategies in a time where anthrax has become front page news.

Mr. Howard currently serves as senior vice president of Key3 Media Events and chairman of the 2002 International Conference on Biosecurity, cosponsored by Harvard University. That conference will be held November 18-21, 2002 at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas, NV.

SDA members can register for the meeting online at SDA’s website, www.cleaning101.com. For questions on the Fall Meeting or SDA membership, contact Brian Sansoni at (202) 662-2517 or [email protected].