Andrea Blair Kirk

I'm a professorial lecturer for GWU's Milken Institute School of Public Health and a toxicologist with the US Environmental Protection Agency where I provide advice and critiques on a wide variety of chemical hazards, including for endocrine disruptors and PFAS. Recent work includes examination mechanisms and relationships between activation of nuclear receptors (PPARs) and changes in bone and adipose tissues, and evaluation of infant and fetal exposures to heavy metals and PFAS. I'm also involved in a number of workgroups and special projects covering risk assessment, emerging contaminants, artificial intelligence-supported systematic review and developing guidelines for developmental and reproductive risk assessments.

Most of my early work focused on maternal and infant exposures to the endocrine disruptor Perchlorate and its effect on iodide excretion in human milk. Perchlorate is a persistent and highly soluble anion. It is also a common contaminant of food and drinking water, whose regulation and potential for harm has been the focus of considerable controversy in the United States. Perchlorate is formed atmospherically in trace amounts, but has become a wide-spread environmental contaminant following synthesis of tens of millions of kilograms for military and industrial use, and the dispersal of tens of millions of tons of perchlorate-containing Chilean nitrate fertilizer over American farmland during the past century. As a toxicant, perchlorate limits availability of iodine, an essential nutrient needed for production of thyroid hormones. Adequate iodine intake is especially important during fetal and infant life because much of brain development is controlled by these hormones.