Beth O Connell

Beth O’Connell

Principal Toxicologist

UKRT/ERT

About Beth

Beth has an MA (Cantab) in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Forensic Science from King’s College London, and is a Registered Toxicologist. She has been a toxicologist at bibra for 14 years, and is skilled in searching for and consolidating data on the mammalian toxicology of chemicals, and assessing these data in the context of human health.

Beth has worked for government agencies, and clients from a range of industrial sectors, including consumer products, food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics. Beth has worked to establish the modes of action (MoAs) of chemical carcinogens, and regularly derives tolerable human exposures by different routes (oral, inhalation, dermal, injection) for both genotoxic and non-genotoxic substances. Over the years, Beth has performed risk assessments on hundreds of chemicals, including additives, flavourings, pharmaceutical impurities, degradants, extractables, leacahles and excipients. She has evaluated the safety of a range of different medical devices in compliance with ISO 10993, and has assisted both with REACH work on industrial chemicals and pre-manufacture notice (PMN) submissions for compliance with the US Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). Another area of interest is the cosmetics sector, for which Beth has drafted cosmetic product safety reports (CPSRs) under the European Cosmetics Regulation ((EC) 1223/2009), assessing the toxicological properties of individual cosmetics ingredients to ensure that products are safe for human use.

Beth also helps peer review Toxicology and Regulatory News, bibra’s monthly publication summarising critical developments and reports relevant to the field of mammalian toxicology.

Outside of work Beth attends both creative writing and life drawing classes, and is training for her purple stripe belt in kickboxing!

Beth's case studies and blog posts

Evaluation of the safety of two complex cosmetics ingredients

Case study

The client was interested in extending the conditions of use of two of its manufactured surfactants to cosmetics and requested a risk assessment in order to evaluate their safety in a range of rinse-off and leave-on products. The two surfactants are each a mixture of several different structurally-related chemicals.

Derivation of a Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for a chemical in Food Contact Materials (FCMs)

Case study

Food-Contact Materials (FCMs) encompass all materials and articles that come into contact with food as it is produced, packaged, stored and consumed. Experts from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have stated that the safety of FCMs must be evaluated to ensure that their potential transfer to foods would not have any adverse effects on consumers . Under EU regulation (EC) 1935/2004, FCMs must not transfer their components into the foods in unacceptable quantities.

N-Nitrosamines risk assessment for a pharmaceutical product

Case study

Bibra was asked to investigate two N-nitrosamines extracted from stoppers for vials used within the pharmaceutical sector.

Want to read more case studies and blog posts that Beth has been involved in? Click below to read more.

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