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Description
Cambridge Environmental provides expert consulting and
testimony regarding drug and alcohol toxicology.
Sample Projects
- In several projects, Cambridge Environmental performed
pharmacokinetic modeling of blood alcohol (ethanol) concentrations or
blood concentrations of drugs. Concentrations of alcohol, the active
ingredient of marijuana, or other drugs are often of interest in
litigation over "drunk driving," personal injuries, or accidents. We
have back-calculated internal drug levels using such data as a
plaintiff’s alcohol level at death or hospital admission, body weight,
sex, drinking behavior, and drug metabolism rate, and then opined as
to the likely amount consumed and degree of impairment. On another occasion, we
evaluated whether trace drugs detected in blood were indicators of
medical treatment given after an accident, or were indicators of illicit
drug use before the accident.
- At the request of the manufacturer of bromocriptine (Parlodel™), a
lactation-suppressing pharmaceutical, we reviewed in depth the
toxicologic and medical literature pertaining to the drug’s toxicity to
women. This literature includes medical case reports, epidemiologic
analyses of consequences of drug use, experimental toxicology in
laboratory animals, and experimental data in humans. In several
lawsuits, we testified regarding the probability that use of Parlodel™
was a contributing cause of myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden death,
and other cardiovascular events.
- Ethanol is a high-volume industrial chemical and a gasoline
additive, as well as the active component of alcoholic beverages. At the
request of the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents industrial
ethanol manufacturers, Cambridge Environmental gathered and evaluated
toxicity data for inhaled ethanol and assessed the likelihood that users
of ethanol-containing gasoline would experience adverse health effects.
- Cambridge Environmental toxicologists co-authored a chapter on
toxicology in the recent textbook, Principles of Pharmacology: The
Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy (Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins, 2004), now in use in many major medical and graduate schools.
The primary author and editor of the book, David Golan, M.D., Ph.D., is
Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and
Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and also a
Consulting Associate to Cambridge Environmental.
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