From the Author
I’m an environmental toxicologist, a scientist that considers how things like pollutants and other chemicals might affect human health and the environment. Environmental toxicologists use data to evaluate how exposures to those things might result in harmful outcomes like cancer, reproductive harm, or death. We help inform decision makers and the public about risks associated with beneficial chemicals. Our work can also prevent or lessen harmful outcomes of unnecessary exposures.
Therefore, we aim to inform the most critical concerns with the best available information. With what’s known about outcomes of exposure to something, we must consider what’s not known. We must include considerations of insufficient or questionable data. And we must be transparent when our conclusions are less certain because they’re not well informed.
I’m concerned about our public health, about funds and efforts allocated to protect our health and environment that don’t when science is undermined. In Agents of the Current Thinking, I describe outcomes of behaviors at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that undermine scientific integrity and risk the pubic health.
About the Author
Christy Leppanen, Ph.D., is an environmental scientist with experience where statutes governing biological, physical, and chemical contaminants are applied. From 2021 to 2025, she was the first microplastic pollution subject matter expert at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products. She was hired to support the agency’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Dr. Leppanen earned a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Memphis, an M.S. in Biology from the University of Memphis, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Maine. She has worked with NGOs, with state, territorial, and federal governments, with international efforts, and taught and published in environmental toxicology, entomology, invasion biology, and conservation science. Dr. Leppanen was an Associate Editor of the journal Biological Invasions, and her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the University of Washington’s Helen R. Whiteley Center.
She also wrote the 2014 Foreword INDIES Bronze Winner for Horror, Bulletin of ZOMBIE Research: Volume 1, that was awarded the Kirkus Star. Written for use in education, the Bulletin of ZOMBIE Research: Volume 1—via popular culture —introduces students to the methods, language, and structure of scientific literature.