For my last day at the National Toxicology Program in the National Institute of Health, I spent my time in the morning attending some interesting toxicology technical briefings on different chemicals recently tested for carcinogenesis. The most interesting of the studies were focused on the hookah and electronic cigarettes, primarily to find out if nicotine is a carcinogen. The study also aimed to determine how to classify the variety of additives used with electronic cigarettes as tobacco related products or not. During the study, I found it interesting to be one of two high school students in the room as the researchers (there were probably around thirty) around us discussed tobacco use in teens; I probably received a couple of awkward looks, but nevertheless, I learned a lot.
Later, Grace and I met with a molecular pathologist to discuss how the work was done by Dr. Malarkey as a veterinary pathologist differs from molecular pathology. We learned that molecular pathology is primarily concerned with how a cancer is created (the gene expression of the cancerous cells and RNA or DNA defects), while veterinary pathology is concerned with identifying tumors through histology. Then, Grace and I presented our cell phone study presentations, in which we drew our own conclusions on whether cell phone radiofrequency radiation proposes a carcinogenic risk.
Finally, to finish off our time at the NIEHS, we joined an office ping-pong tournament, where we witnessed some of the ping-pong regulars during their practice session; they take a break from their labs for ninety minutes every day at 2:30 pm to hone their skills. In the end, I enjoyed my time at the NTP and am glad to have had the opportunity to learn so much in just two weeks!
The NIEHS as seen from the lake and the ping-pong room!