Carla J. Kinslow, Ph.D.
Director, Toxicology and Food Safety
SERVICES GROUP
LOCATION
Get to know the expert
Expert QuestionS & AnswerS
In food safety and toxicology investigations, what are some warning signs or patterns that organizations often overlook before a serious issue emerges?
Proper record keeping is a common limit to many toxicology investigations. In food cases, clients are very good at making the product, but when something goes wrong, they do not have the proper records to conduct a root cause analysis. With the proper records, an investigation can be resolved quickly and without records, it’s much more complex. In dram shop cases, the more information, the better. Video, statements, and records of observations from the bartender are all records that can help.
If you could give one piece of advice to an insurance adjuster handling a toxicology and food safety claim for the first time, what would it be?
Contact a toxicologist as soon as possible. Just a short call can help them make some early decisions in their case.
When evaluating potential toxic exposure cases, what kinds of evidence or data tend to be the most important in reaching reliable conclusions?
The toxicologist needs two things to determine if there were a causal relationship and an increased risk of disease or injury. There must be a hazard and there must be exposure to that hazard. Thus, data regarding if the material is hazardous and if so, what would you expect to happen is critical. Likewise, exposure data is just as critical to have. If there was no exposure, than was no increased risk of disease or injury.
What is the most surprising source of contamination or exposure you’ve encountered in your investigations?
The most surprising cases are those that are presented to us with one seemly obvious origin, but through thorough discovery, data evaluation, and review of the facts we find that it was not as it first appeared. For example, a transplant patient was diagnosed with a systemic fungal infection allegedly caused by exposure from a rental property during treatment. After assessment, it was discovered that the fungal species that caused the infection originated from the treatment facility.
What is one piece of advice you find yourself giving clients over and over again?
Please call us as soon as you have a potential case. We are here to help and assist you.
Background
Dr. Carla Kinslow holds a doctorate in Biomedical Sciences, Cell Biology/Molecular Toxicology with over 35 years of biomedical, regulatory, and environmental experience.
She has expertise in inhalation and oral toxicology; derivation of regulatory screening values for oral and inhalation exposure, toxicogenomics; toxicological risk assessment and communication of such risk to diverse stakeholders; human health impacts analysis from emission events; air, soil, and water monitoring data; modeling data related to ambient air and drinking water quality; water contamination from oil and gas operations; and stakeholder communication.
She specializes in risk-based evaluation of air, soil, and groundwater toxicology under the USEPA, as well as state and federal guidelines. She has served as manager for various regulatory projects where she helped design and implement air monitoring networks, groundwater monitoring projects, and remediation scopes, with subsequent assessment and communication of such human health impacts based on collected data. She has extensive experience in the evaluation of drug and alcohol impairment and “DRAM” shop cases.
Dr. Kinslow also has extensive experience in the evaluation of pesticide/herbicide overspray cases as well as health risks based on genetic predisposition to disease from environmental, occupational, and pharmaceutical exposures. Notably, Dr. Kinslow is also an environmental microbiologist and regularly conducts indoor air quality mold investigations and beer contamination evaluations.
Education and Certifications
- Biomedical Sciences, Cell Biology/Molecular Toxicology, Ph.D.: Biomedical Sciences, Cell Biology/Molecular Toxicology, Ph.D.: University of Texas Medical Branch (2008)
- Molecular Phycology/Marine Ecology, M.S.: Michigan Technological University (1997)
- Biology, B.A.: Indiana University Southeast (1992)
- Society of Toxicology: Full Member
- American Society of Microbiology: Premium Member
- Society of Toxicology of Canada: Regular Member
- University of Texas Medical Branch Alumni Committee: Member
Publications
- “Beyond Science and Decisions: From Problem Formulation to Dose-Response Report from Workshop IV”, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), published 2022.
- “Regulatory regions responsive to oxidative stress in the promoter of the human DNA glycosylase gene NEIL2,” Mutagenesis, 2010, Mar; 25(2):171-7.
- “Genetic determinant of NEIL2 transcription,”D. Dissertation.
- “Single nucleotidepolymorphisms 5’ upstream the coding region of the NEIL2 gene influence gene transcription levels and alter levels of genetic damage,” Genes Chromosomes Cancer, 2008 Nov;47(11):923-32.
- “The L84F polymorphism in the O6-Methylguanine-DNA-Methyltransferase (MGMT) gene is associated with increased hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) mutant frequency in lymphocytes of tobacco smokers,” Genomics, 2007 Sep;17(9):743-53.
- “The L84F and the I143V polymorphisms in the O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) gene increase human sensitivity to the genotoxic effects of the tobacco-specific nitrosamine carcinogen NNK,” Pharmacogenet Genomics, 2005 Aug. 15(8):571-8.
- “Molecular Biology of the marine diatom Achnanthesis longipes,” Master’s thesis, 1997.