Neil L. Sass, Ph.D.
State Toxicologist and State Counterterrorism Coordinator
Alabama Department of Public Health, Montgomery, AL

Dr. Sass received a B.S. in Biology (Wake Forest College, Winston-Salem, NC), a M.S. in Physiology and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV), and was a Fellow in Applied Behavioral Science and received a M.S. in this field from The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, a department in which he also held a teaching appointment. Dr. Sass' first career was in Federal service, initially as a research toxicologist in the U.S. Army conducting programs on development and testing of military peculiar chemicals (Edgewood Arsenal, MD) and later as Chief of Clinical Investigations, Wm. Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, TX. He transferred his commission from the U.S. Army to the U.S. Public Health Service and was assigned to various positions in the Food and Drug Administration as well as being detailed to various other organizations within the Department of Health and Human Services.

His assignments at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) included serving as a regulatory toxicologist specializing in the evaluation of toxicity of food and/or color additives and cosmetics, and directing Federal nutrition programs for Public Health Service agencies. Dr. Sass spent 19 years assigned as the Special Assistant to the Director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). In this role, he was responsible for developing and implementing food safety policy, including testifying before various Congressional committees to further the implementation of these policies.

He was also Chairperson, CFSAN IACUC, and was primarily responsible for redesigning the protocol development and review process to render it user and administration friendly and efficient. Dr. Sass was also Director, Division of Toxicological Research, CFSAN/FDA. In this role, he redesigned the program with primary emphasis on the development of alternatives to animal studies. He was also a member of the federal Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) and the Assistant Secretary for Health's Environmental Health Policy Committee (EHPC). The charter for the ICCVAM group is to achieve acceptance of national standardization of test methods for alternatives to animal test procedures. This goal is extended to achievement of international standardization of methods between nations and industry organizations.

Dr. Sass also represented the United States on a working group assembled by the OECD to develop guidance on the humane use of animals in safety testing. As a member of EHPC, Dr. Sass served with the heads of Public Health Service Agencies to negotiate and address issues which spanned the jurisdiction of multiple PHS agencies. This role involved the determination of research needs to answer questions critical to the decision making processes in each agency.

Dr. Sass was active in Applied Research Ethics National Association (ARENA) activities and affairs. He served as the alternate member of the ARENA Council for two years, and as Arena Council representative for the Mid-Atlantic Region for six years, as well as serving as the program chair and co-chair for the annual ARENA Meeting for four years.

In 1999, Dr. Sass retired from active federal service and accepted a position as State Toxicologist and State Counterterrorism Coordinator, operating out of the Alabama Department of Public Health, in Montgomery. In this capacity, Dr. Sass has the responsibility of overseeing the possible impact on the health of Alabama citizens from assorted sources of contaminants, e.g., from inhalation of materials due to a leak from an industrial or transportation source, or from ingestion through contaminants entering the food/water supply.

As Counterterrorism Coordinator, Dr. Sass directs activities within the Alabama Department of Public Health designed to increase the level of preparedness of the medical assets within the state should a catastrophic event occur, be it of natural, accidental, or terrorist origin. In this role, Dr. Sass works closely with the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, the Alabama Department of Public Safety, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make certain possible contingencies surrounding an event have been considered and appropriately addressed with minimum duplication of efforts.