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

Hazard characterisation of several e-liquid ingredients

Case study

The client is required to provide regulatory authorities with up-to-date toxicological information related to the ingredients used in their products. Bibra were provided with a list of several substances and asked to produce a hazard review (considering the requirements of the European Tobacco Products Directive, TPD2) for each.

An in vitro test battery for developmental neurotoxicity

Blog articles

If you were to look for a nice, easy place to develop an in vitro testing strategy, Developmental Neurotoxicity (DNT) probably wouldn’t be at the top of your list...click to read more about this complex challenge.

Exploring Alternative Methods to Animal Toxicity Testing

Blog articles

It has been promised for a heck of a long time, but are we now close to an era when a chemical’s toxic potential can be comprehensively defined without exploiting fellow sentient creatures. As well as this obvious ethical gain, alternative test methods to animal testing have the equally attractive potential to reduce the times and costs associated with safety testing.

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

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