The Orange County Crime Laboratory is
hosting the Nov 5th and 6th meeting at
the Disneyland Paradise Pier in Anaheim.
The title of the meeting is “Under the In-
fluence of Drug(s), Says Who?” covering
topics regarding common DUID de-
fenses, “Z drugs” and more! Visit
www.cal-tox.org for the detailed agenda.
The Disneyland Paradise Pier Hotel is located at 1717 Disneyland
Dr, Anaheim 92802. The CAT room rate is $137/night. The re-
sort fee is $12/day which includes self parking and internet. Self
parking is free to attendees, valet is $17/day. Deadline for CAT
room rates is October 14th!
See page 2 of this newsletter for details regarding registration
prices, reserving rooms at the discounted CAT rate and discount
park tickets!
California Association of Toxicologists Newsletter
Volume 40:2 Summer 2010 2010-11 Board of Directors
PRESIDENT
Michelle Sandberg
PAST PRESIDENT
John Hughes
VICE PRESIDENT
Nadina Giorgi
SECRETARY/MEMBERSHIP
Trevor Gillis
SECRETARY/PROCEEDINGS
Cathy Hamm
TREASURER
Dan Coleman
MEMBER-AT-LARGE NORTH
Edwin Smith
MEMBER-AT-LARGE SOUTH
Jaime Lintemoot
Inside this issue:
Registration Form Pg 2
CAT Grant Pg 4
BOD Mtg Pg 5
Business Mtg Pg 6
Officer’s Reports Pg 7-9, 16-18
Chair/Committee
Reports
Pg 10-15
CAT Survey/
Results
Pg 19-21
CAT Survey
Program
Pg 22
Please mail the completed registration form to the CAT Of-
fice along with a check payable to “CAT”. Sorry, no purchase
orders or credit cards are accepted at this time. If you need
a W-9 form, please contact our treasurer Dan Coleman at
To register you must:
Send in your fees along with the registration form
Send appropriate fees depending on member status
Registrants will receive an email confirming successful regis-
tration. If you do not receive an email within two weeks of
submitting your registration, please contact the CAT Office
with questions.
Absolutely NO REFUNDS will be issued. If you are not up to
date on your dues, please contact the CAT Office regarding
payment.
Registration Procedure
Next CAT Meeting: Disneyland!
Hotel Accommodations: The meeting will be held at the Disneyland Paradise Pier Hotel
in Anaheim at 1717 Disneyland Dr. Anaheim 92802. The CAT room rate is $137/night.
The resort fee is $12/day which includes self parking and internet.
Self-parking is free to attendees, valet is $17/day.
Discounted park tickets are available until Nov. 1, 2010 at
http://www.disneyconventionear.com/GPCK10B
Reserve rooms online at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/GPCK10B
The deadline for CAT room rates is October 14, 2010.
*Registration cost includes lunch and dinner on Friday and lunch on Saturday.
P A G E 2
Friday, November 5, 2010
Registration (must be postmarked by October 15th)
( ) $70 Pre-registration for CAT Members ($110 after October 15th)
( ) $35 Pre-registration for CAT Emeritus/Student Members ($75 after October 15th)
( ) $100 Pre-registration for Non Members ($140 after October 15th)
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Registration (must be postmarked by October 15th)
( ) $70 Pre-registration for CAT Members ($110 after October 15th)
( ) $35 Pre-registration for CAT Emeritus/Student Members ($75 after October 15th)
( ) $100 Pre-registration for Non Members ($140 after October 15th)
**No Refunds after October 15th** Mail Completed Registration Form to:
Kristina Takeshita 1800 Paseo Rancho Castilla
Los Angeles, CA 90032
______________________________ ______________________________ Name Mailing Address ______________________________ ______________________________ Email City/State/Zip ______________________________ ______________________________ Phone Professional/Business Affiliation My Total Registration Cost is $_______ w/check #__________ made out to “CAT”
California Association of Toxicologists Under the Influence of Drug’s, Says Who?
November 5-6, 2010 in Anaheim
P A G E 3
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
CAT received over $6500 in vendor support
for our May meeting in Sacramento!
As a highlight, UTAK sponsored
a very entertaining evening with a comedy night social.
For the vendor game, ThermoFisher donated a fantastic prize:
a bottle of tequila in the shape of a revolver.
Immunalysis generously sponsored the vendor game providing
attendants a sleep-inspired game titled "Counting Sheep".
Attendants were encouraged to go to each vendor and roll dice that represented how many sheep they had. The person with the lowest
amount of sheep won a prize! Immunalysis also donated several prizes for the vendor game, and sponsored Friday's lunch.
Last but not least, Shimadzu sponsored
our delicious Saturday morning break.
Thank you to all our vendors who contributed
to the success of this meeting!
P A G E 4
CAT Research Assistant Grant
Committees and Chairs AACC ACCENT Credits Kenton Wong (510)266-8132
Bylaws and Records, Review
and Revision
Sarah Kerrigan (713)868-2440
Drugs and Driving Janet Seaquist (805)662-6804 Jennifer Valdez (480)312-5276
Emeritus Elect Vacant
Forensic Alcohol Advisory Halle Weingarten (408)274-0696 Paul Sedgwick (714)834-6351
Future Meetings/Short Courses Nikolas Lemos (415)553-1694
Legislative Liaison Ed Smith (916)366-3113
Lending Library Cathy Hamm (858)694-2909
Membership Nadina Giorgi (916)227-3620
New Drugs Dan Anderson (323)343-0660
Quality Assurance Jaime Lintemoot (323)343-0672
Research Grant Rob Fitzgerald (858)552-8585, ext 7761
Toxicology Literature Review Vacant
Vendor Liaison Melissa Kramer (323) 415-8877
Hotel Locator Janice Strum
The California Association of Toxicologists has made available $2,500 for a Re-
search Assistant Grant. This grant is intended to fund research projects in the
area of clinical and forensic toxicology. In addition, up to $500 is available for
travel expenses to recipients of the grant who will be expected to present their
findings at a future CAT meeting. For further information, contact the Chair of
CAT Research Grant by fax, mail or email at the address below.
Robert L. Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
VAMC-113
3350 La Jolla Village Drive
San Diego, California 92161
Phone: (959) 552-8585, ext. 7761
Fax: (858) 642-6304
Email: [email protected]
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Board of Director’s Meeting
P A G E 5
The CAT Board of Director’s meet-ing was called to order on May 14, 2010 at 5:35 pm by President Mi-chelle Sandberg.
The meeting was attended by Presi-dent Michelle Sandberg, Treasurer Dan Coleman, Proceedings Secretary Catherine Hamm, Member-ship Secretary Trevor Gillis, Member-at-Large North Edwin Smith, Member-at-Large South and QA/QC Chair Jaime Lintemoot, Vendor Liaison Melissa Kramer, and CAT Assistant Kristina Take-shita. The attendees constituted the quorum needed to conduct new business.
The minutes from the previous board meeting were presented for approval. With no corrections sug-gested, the minutes were approved as presented.
President Michelle Sandberg thanked Melissa Kramer for a great job as Vendor Liaison at this meeting. Melissa reported that there was $6,500 in vendor support at this meeting and that the vendors seemed happy with attendance and arrangements. Michelle passed out a proposed draft of Meeting Guidelines for CAT and asked for feedback. The next meeting will be in Anaheim and hosted by Dani Mata and Jennifer Harmon of the Orange County Crime Lab.
Michelle presented the proposal from Capitola De-signs for the updating and management of the CAT website. Ed Smith offered to review the proposal for website services and make relevant recommen-dations. In the meantime, the CAT board of direc-tors voted to accept Capitola’s proposal and move forward with the website updates.
Membership Secretary Trevor Gillis presented the applicants for membership. There were no con-cerns or discussion regarding any of the applicants, and they will be presented at the business meeting tomorrow.
Proceedings Secretary and Lending Library Chair Cathy Hamm reported that the obsolete material contained in the lending library was boxed up and sent to GreenDisk for disposal. We have a certifi-cate that all the materials, mainly videotapes, were
securely destroyed. The remaining items will trans-ferred to the CAT office at the November 2010 meeting.
Treasurer Dan Coleman gave a synopsis of the fi-nancial status of the CAT. Please see his detailed reports in the Newsletter. He also expects his meeting to break even financially.
QA/QC Chair Jaime Lintemoot recommended sending out fewer CAT Surveys each year. The board voted to change the policies and procedures to require a minimum of two CAT surveys per year to coincide with the reduced number of meetings per year.
MAL North Edwin Smith is attempting to put to-gether a list of forensic science programs in central and northern California. Please forward any sug-gestions to him.
MAL South Jaime Lintemoot had several sugges-tions for promoting the organization, including up-dating website information with past winners of re-search grants and their presentations, adding links to relevant toxicology sites (like RTI) to the website, update the vendor section with current vendor sponsors, resume CAT polo shirt sales (Melissa offered to take care of this at meetings), put the membership roster on the website in the members-only section, consider starting a Yahoo group for the organization, and trying to publish relevant arti-cles of interest in the newsletter. She also sug-gested emailing the CAT Newsletter in PDF format to the membership. There was discussion of re-duced membership dues for those members that would forego a paper newsletter. The board voted to set membership fees as follows: $65/year to in-clude printed copy of the newsletter, and $60/year for electronic copy.
CAT Assistant Kristina Takeshita plans to publish the next issue of the Newsletter in August, 2010.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 pm.
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Business Meeting
P A G E 6
The CAT business meeting was called to order on May 15, 2010 at 11:55 am by President
Michelle Sandberg.
Michelle announced the online and electronic version of the newsletter. She re-ported that the CAT board has approved a pro-posal from Capitola Design for a content man-agement feature on the website along with online meeting registration and dues payments. She also announced the upcoming meetings. The next meeting is hosted by Orange County Crime Lab at Disneyland Resort on November 14-15, 2010. The following hosts have been tentatively lined up:
May 2011 Redwood Toxicology
(Northern California)
Nov 2011 LAPD Crime Lab
May 2012 Northern California
(host needed)
Nov 2012 LA County Sheriff Crime Lab
She thanked Sacramento meeting host Dan Coleman for his work and congratulated him on a successful meeting.
Membership Secretary Trevor Gillis presented three applicants for membership. There was no discussion of the applicants and they were ap-proved by vote of the membership.
Treasurer Dan Coleman presented the Treas-urer’s report. He reported that the organization is generally cost-neutral, income and expenses about the same. He expected this meeting to break even. He also reported that CAT was fined $260 by the IRS for late filing.
Proceedings Secretary Cathy Hamm made an announcement regarding the CAT lending library. Obsolete and outdated items have been securely destroyed and remaining items of historical sig-nificance will be transferred to the CAT Office at the November 2010 meeting.
MAL North Edwin Smith solicited contact infor-mation regarding forensic science or toxicology education and training programs in California. He is attempting to put together a list for the web-site. Please forward any suggestions to him.
MAL South Jaime Lintemoot suggested changes for the website and newsletter that are outlined in her report in this newsletter.
Forensic Alcohol Advisory committee chair Halle Weingarten reported that the Forensic Alcohol Review Committee (FARC) continues to meet and report on their recommendations. Watch for the final recommended version online at http://www.cdph.ca.gov/services/boards/farc/Pages/default.aspx . They are soliciting public comment with regard to the proposed changes.
Quality Assurance Chair Jaime Lintemoot shared that the results of the latest QA/QC sur-vey sample will be published in the newsletter. She is soliciting host laboratories to prepare and send out future survey samples. CAT plans to go to two survey samples per year.
Vendor Liaison Melissa Kramer of LAPD thanked all the vendors for their attendance and support, and reported $6,500 in vendor sponsor-ship.
Member Nik Lemos promoted the upcoming SOFT meeting in San Francisco in Fall 2011.
The meeting was adjourned to lunch at 12:20
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Officer’s Reports
P A G E 7
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
President-Michelle Sandberg
Future meeting hosts and site selections:
In order to be as resourceful as possible, we are trying to get the best hotel rates possible by se-curing contracts for more than one meeting at a time.
Nov. 5-6, 2010 – Host, Jennifer Harmon of
Orange County Sheriff Coroner Disney
Paradise Pier Hotel, CAT rate $137/night +
$12 resort fee
May 5-6, 2011 – Host, Suman Rana of
Redwood Toxicology Napa Valley Embassy
Suites, CAT rate of $145/night includes
breakfast!
Nov. 4-5, 2011 – Host, LAPD Toxicology
Section Hilton Glendale – CAT rate of $139/
night + CAT parking rate of $8
May 2012—We need a host!
Nov. 2-3, 2012 – Host, LASD Toxicology
Section Hilton Glendale - CAT rate of $139/
night + CAT parking rate of $8
Website update – This is probably our biggest undertaking for 2011. CAT is on the path to finally getting our website user friendly from the “back” end! The CAT Board has voted to move forward with a content man-agement system which should be up and running within the next three months. If the project moves as expected, online reg-istration should be available for the No-vember 2010 meeting. Please notify me of any content update requests you have
Next slate of officers – It’s time to think about who we have to fill the next slate of offi-cers for CAT Board. Cathy Hamm is look-
ing to step down, and is hoping to find an interested member who can job shadow her for the remainder of her term.
Committee chairs – Some chairs would like to have an additional committee member so that they are not a “party of one”. Edwin Smith has agreed to join the website com-mittee and Tim Appel has agreed to assist Dan Anderson on the New Drugs Commit-tee. If any member has an interest in one of our committees, please step forward!
Northern and Southern Rep’s – It often seems there is little delegated for this Board posi-tion to do aside from updating be member-ship on available training. We have some association needs that are vacant where these Board members may be able to help. One that came to mind was to as-sist bringing new membership to the meet-ings by networking with local colleges, fo-rensic programs, hospitals and private laboratories for flier distribution. Addition-ally, Jaime will be helping us with identify-ing old material on our website and Edwin in bringing new technology to our forms.
Meeting Host Guidelines – Have been up-dated and are currently being reviewed by other Board members. It will be a work in progress, and they will be updated as needed and from suggestions of recent past meeting hosts.
Hosting ABFT – Suggested by our N. and S. representatives – Is CAT interested in hosting an exam or assisting with one? Nicholas Lemos is looking for help with hosting one in August 2011.
Officer Reports (continued)
P A G E 8
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
CAT Documents – They are in need of being updated. Trevor Gillis will assist in identi-fying materials for update.
Immediate Past President-John Hughes
(not attending)
CAT solicited a proposal with cost from our cur-rent website support firm, Capitola Designs in the Santa Cruz area, for a complete update of the CAT website for the following purposes:
The ability for CAT itself (CAT office or desig-nated website member help) to make routine updates of content, e.g. meeting information, registration forms. The current design of the website by our previous developer is suffi-ciently non-standard and undocumented, that we have to rely on Capitola for most updates.
Create a Content Management System (CMS), a simple user interface to facilitate self-made updates without the need for CAT to purchase and maintain expensive web de-sign software
Make the website supportable and updatable by any competent web designer using indus-try-standard tools and practices
Make the website compatible with the planned Membership system, which will in-clude membership info updating, online meet-ing registration/payment and dues payment
The submitted cost from Capitola was $7000, with a 4-8 week elapsed timeline for the work.
A teleconference with Webex was held on April 29, 2010 with President Michelle Sandberg, VP Meetings Nadina Giorgi, CAT office assistant Kristina Takeshita, and myself to discuss the pro-posal and prepare website recommendations for a Board vote to move forward on the website up-date. The following are those recommendations:
CAT should proceed with the Capitola pro-posal and project. We have had good experi-ences with them thus far, and they are lo-cated near several CAT board members for ease of working with them. We see no need to look for other bids from other website de-signers, which would prolong the project.
We should include in the website update the long-proposed online Membership system. SOFT/AAFS website designer Paul Lubbers has already prepared a prototype member-ship system using SOFT code (allowed by our sister organizations for our cost savings) which has been tested last year by the CAT office. Although the current meeting registra-tion system is working well for the office with only two meetings/year, the Committee’s opinion is that the convenience of online pay-ment will be welcomed by most of our mem-bership, and that CAT should have a profes-sionally-functioning website comparable to those of SOFT, AAFS, and ASMS for these functions.
CAT’s finances are currently in good shape, partially due to break-even or profitable meet-ings, and reduced expenses for the Newslet-ter. We had originally budgeted $10,000 just for the Membership system, which will be much less expensive than originally forecast. So even a small cost overrun beyond the $10k will be easily tolerated by the CAT budget, to accomplish both the badly-needed website update and the membership system.
Officer Reports (continued)
P A G E 9
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
In closing the meeting, we extended great thanks to Michelle for her tedious management of web-site updates until we got Capitola routinely doing them for us.
As I will not be able to attend the May Board meeting, my vote for the Website update (both design/CMS and Membership system) is Aye.
Vice President-Nadina Giorgi I continue to work with John and Michelle in re-gards to Capitola overhauling the website. Once the website has been re-worked, I hope to be able to take over more of the responsibility of up-dating the new site. On-line registration and membership renewal would be ideal to have on the website, but for now the main focus should be for CAT to be able to easily do our own up-dates to the site.
Secretary of Proceedings-Cathy Hamm
For various reasons, I have not been able to ob-tain the presentations from the meetings to be posted on the website. Main reason cited is that the host isn’t sure if it is OK with the author. I as-sured everyone that only PDF files will be posted. Also, there was a meeting that was also a SOFT workshop and the host did not want to turn over that material. I don’t mind asking, and transfer-ring the files onto a memory stick, but I am not going to hound the hosts. I have sent several follow-up emails with no success. Maybe the host guidelines need to be changed, or some other procedure put in place. I would like to dis-cuss this.
Secretary of Membership– Trevor Gillis
Applicant’s for Associate Membership
Erin Crabtrey
QA Manager/Toxicologist
Bio-Tox Laboratories
Riverside, CA
Timothy Fassetto
Forensic Chemist II
Henderson PD Crime Lab
Henderson, NV
Alejandro Corona
Forensic Toxicologist
Forensic Analytical Sciences, Inc.
Hayward, CA
Treasurer-Dan Coleman
See report on pages 16-18.
Member-at-Large North-Ed Smith
Nothing to Report at this time.
Member-at-Large South-Jaime Lintemoot
Nothing to Report at this time.
Chair Reports
P A G E 1 0
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Lending Library-Cathy Hamm
The lending library has been dismantled and the archives (three banker’s boxes) will to be trans-ferred to the CAT Office. We need to update the website to remove the information about the lending library
Forensic Alcohol Advisory Committee – Paul
Sedgwick and Halle Weingarten
The Forensic Alcohol Review Committee (FARC) has had several meetings during which they have continued to work on revisions to Title 17. The minutes of meetings as well as current proposed versions of the regulations can be found on the Health Department’s web site: www.cdph.ca.gov/services/boards/farc/Pages/default.aspx.
Under California law, adoption or modification of regulations requires various levels of approval and public comments will be considered. All inter-ested individuals should examine the proposals and provide feedback.
Toxicology Literature Review – Rodger Foltz
No information was provided
New Drugs Committee – Dan Anderson
Have to first admit that as the New Drugs com-mittee chair, I have been negligent with up keep-ing the new drugs section for CAT. Although I fulfill the same job duties for SOFT and obtain information about new drugs and their analytical characteristics, I have to ask for permission from the authors, who previously submitted to SOFT/ToxTalk, for their approval to include their docu-mentation on the CAT website.
Action:
The drugs will have to be reconciled from what is already on the CAT website with those that were published in ToxTalk in the last few years.
Permission will be obtained from those authors in order to make the document available on the CAT website.
Drug documents (word or pdf) will be forwarded to the appropriate person for uploading onto CAT website.
AACC Continuing Education Committee -
Kenton S. Wong
All smooth sailing; No Report
Chair Reports (continued)
P A G E 1 1
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Legislative Liaison – Edwin Smith
The following California bills may be of interest to CAT members. For complete information, please visit the bill information website at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.
Assembly Bill 748: Places MDMA in
Sched ule II (status: active)
Assembly Bill 390: Marijuana Control,
Regulation, and Education Act
(status: inactive)
Assembly Bill 2254: Marijuana Control,
Regulation, and Education Act
(status: active)
Senate Bill 1449: Marijuana possession (status: active)
Senate Bill 16: Marijuana taxation
(status: active)
Senate Bill 17: Cannabis Licensing Act
(status: active)
Senate Bill 53: Medical Marijuana Licensing Act (status: inactive)
Senate Bill 62: Marijuana taxation
(status: inactive)
Senate Joint Resolution #14: Medical
marijuana (status: active)
Vendor Liaison – Melissa Kramer
$6500 revenue generated for the May 2010 meeting. This includes 10 companies exhibiting and the following:
Utak – Comedy Club
Perkin Elmer – Prizes
Shimadzu – Sat. AM Continental Breakfast
Immunalysis – Sat. Lunch
Future Meetings and Short Courses – Nikolas
Lemos
48th Annual Meeting of The International Asso-ciation of Forensic Toxicologists
August 29 - September 2, 2010, Bonn, Germany
http://tiaft2010.gtfch.org
38th Annual Workshop and Symposium of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors
September 10 – 16, 2010, Baltimore, MD
http://www.ascld.org/content/2010-symposium
Course on Advanced HPLC Method Develop-ment
September 13 - 29, 2010, Live on the WWW
www.lcresources.com/training/tramd.html
Course on HPLC Basics, Equipment, and Trou-bleshooting
September 14 – 30, 2010, Live on the WWW
www.lcresources.com/training/trbeqts.html
Chair Reports (continued)
P A G E 1 2
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Annual Meeting of the National Association of Medical Examiners
October 1 – 6, 2010, Cleveland, OH
http://thename.org
Seminar of the California Association of Criminal-ists
October 3 – 7, 2010, Oakland, CA
http://www.cacnews.org/events/seminar/seminarcurrent.shtml
Course on Interpretation of Mass Spectra
October 4 – November 17, 2010, Live on the WWW
www.lcresources.com/training/trims.html
2010 Meeting of the Society of Forensic Toxi-cologists
October 18 ‐ 22, 2010, Richmond, VA
www.soft-tox.org
Course on Advanced HPLC Method Develop-ment
November 1-2, 2010, Foster City, CA
www.lcresources.com/training/tramd.html
Course on HPLC Basics, Equipment, and Trou-bleshooting
November 3 – 5, 2010, Foster City, CA
www.lcresources.com/training/trbeqts.html
Course on Interpretation of Mass Spectra
November 8 – 10, 2010, Foster City, CA
www.lcresources.com/training/trims.html
Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Fo-rensic Sciences
February 21 ‐ 26, 2011, Chicago, IL
www.aafs.org/default.asp?sec-tion_id=meetings&page_id=aafs_annual_meeting
50th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology & ToxExpoTM
March 6 – 10, 2011, Washington, DC
http://www.toxicology.org/ai/meet/am.asp
Spring 2011 National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society
March 27 - 31, 2011, Anaheim, CA
http://www.acs.org
Seminar of the California Association of Criminal-ists
May 16 – 20, 2011, Los Angeles, CA
http://www.cacnews.org/events/seminar/seminars.shtml
Chair Reports (continued)
P A G E 1 3
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Bylaws & Records, Review & Revision – Sarah
Kerrigan
There has been no activity to report
Research Grant Committee – Robert Fitzgerald
There have been no new application for the Re-search Grant. There is $2500 available for a toxi-cology research project. Anyone interested should check out the research grant page of the CAT web-site (www.cal-tox.org).
Website Committee - Michelle Sandberg and
Tim Appel
Michelle
The most up to date information is reflected in John Hughes report regarding our meeting with Capitola
Michelle continues to be the liaison between CAT and Capitola for getting information posted
John Hughes is serving as the liaison between CAT and Capitola in regards to major website changes
Nadina is involved with reviewing what John supplies us from Capitola
I would like to see if we can interest Tim in as-sisting with other committees that are in greater need than the website committee!
Tim
I have nothing to report
Quality Assurance – Jaime Lintemoot
Participation:
There are currently 33 Laboratories participating in the CAT Survey Program.
14 Laboratories are from California
2 Laboratories are from Canada
The remaining 17 Laboratories are from other States.
Past Surveys:
Fall 2009: Jaime Lintemoot – Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Specimen – Urine
Drugs:
920 ng/mL Butalbital
1200 ng/mL Dextromethorphan
800 ng/mL Doxylamine
160 ng/mL Tizanidine
75 ng/mL Oxycodone
450 ng/mL Venlafaxine
Current Surveys:
Spring 2010: John Musselman – Phoenix, AZ-Phoenix Police Department Crime Laboratory
In Progress
Future Survey Hosts:
Summer 2010: Paul Delaney – Willow Grove, PA NMS Labs
Fall 2010: William Dunn – Newark, NJ Regional Medical Examiner’s Office
Winter 2010 and On: Looking for Volunteers!!
Chair Reports (continued)
P A G E 1 4
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Drugs and Driving-Janet Seaquist and Jenni-
fer Valdez
Janet: No information provided
Jennifer:
The theme of this meeting is determining differ-ences between non-drugged driving issues and drugged driving issues. To wit, I am attaching the links to several articles that are available in full for free on the web.
For an overall view on what drives your driving, go to http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/traffic/tpintro.html#domains and read the comprehensive theory of driving behavior – how it develops, is implemented, and circumvented in some drivers. What makes you a good driver?
Sleep issues:
To look at the sleep-apnea crowd, check out An-nals of Internal Medicine at www.annals.org for a link to Ann Intern Med. 2009;151:447-455. Ef-fects of Alochol and Sleep Restriction on Simula-tor Performance in Untreated Patients with Ob-structive Sleep Apnea, Vakulin, et al. Prepare to be amazed as it is scientifically proven that peo-ple with their eyes closed are more likely to crash than the control group. Crash risk increased 7 times versus the control group.
A new term to haunt you in court – “microsleeping”! Great, now we can add another thing to the list of reasons your client is not guilty of DUI drugs. Look in to it for free at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808128/ find out how not sleeping at night is corrected for during the day.
One can also increase the risk of accidents by
not getting enough oxygen to the brain. I know – go figure. A small study shows that patients with COPD have approximately twice the accident rate in simulators as healthy individuals. No rela-tion to severity of disease and accident risk could be made. Check it out at http://www.jpp.krakow.pl/journal/archive/1208_s6/pdf/539_1208_s6_article.pdf Why do we sleep anyway? No one really knows, but a new study has shown that, like COPD, not getting enough sleep causes less oxygen to get to frontal lobes the next day, impacting cognitive ability. Look for these results in Insufficient sleep impairs driving performance and cognitive function. Miyata S, Noda A, Ozaki N, Hara Y, Minoshima M, Iwa-moto K, Takahashi M, Iidaka T, Koike Y. Neuro-sci Lett. 2010 Jan 22;469(2):229-33. Epub 2009 Dec 6.
Distractions:
What’s the difference between your iPod and your cell phone? Not much, evidently. Details in Driving error and anxiety related to iPod mp3 player use in a simulated driving experience. Harvey AR, Carden RL. Percept Mot Skills. 2009 Aug;109(1):159-67.
Chair Reports (continued)
P A G E 1 5
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Is your mouth connected to your eye? Probably not, but they evidently route through the same area of the brain such that speaking impairs sus-tained visual attention to task whereas listening does not. Books on CD – good. Talking – Bad. See the full text article for free at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684625/?tool=pubmed
Turn about is fair play. If you are paying atten-tion to your driving, it turns out that talking ability suffers. Read about it in Driving impairs talking. Becic E, Dell GS, Bock K, Garnsey SM, Kubose T, Kramer AF. Psychon Bull Rev. 2010 Feb;17(1):15-21.
Drugs:
Zolpidem and sleep-driving – fact or fiction? 18F-FDG-PET fails to prove or disprove that a pa-tient drove in her sleep due to zolpidem. She did, apparently, have a sandwich. Zolpidem-Induced Sleepwalking, Sleep Related Eating Dis-order, and Sleep-Driving: Fluorine-18-Flourodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomogra-phy Analysis, and a Literature Review of Other Unexpected Clinical Effects of Zolpidem . Romy Hoque, M.D. and Andrew L. Chesson, Jr., M.D. J Clin Sleep Med. 2009 October 15; 5(5): 471–476. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2762721/?tool=pubmed
Apples to apples? Check out the review of the effects of alcohol and marijuana on driving at The effect of cannabis compared with alcohol on driv-ing. Sewell RA, Poling J, Sofuoglu M. Am J Ad-dict. 2009 May-Jun;18(3):185-93. Review.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/?tool=pubmed
And everybody’s favorite: alcohol. For a map to exactly which areas of the brain are microsleep-ing after alcohol, check out Effects of alcohol on performance on a distraction task during simu-lated driving. Allen AJ, Meda SA, Skudlarski P, Calhoun VD, Astur R, Ruopp KC, Pearlson GD. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2009 Apr;33(4):617-25. Epub 2009 Jan 15. available at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2753192/?tool=pubmed and
Alcohol dose effects on brain circuits during simulated driving: an fMRI study.
Meda SA, Calhoun VD, Astur RS, Turner BM, Ruopp K, Pearlson GD. Hum Brain Mapp. 2009 Apr;30(4):1257-70. at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2751645/?tool=pubmed
Treasurer Report
P A G E 1 6
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
California Association of Toxicologists Financial Report
2nd Fiscal Quarter 2009/2010 9/1/2009 through 11/30/2009
Income Sept-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Total
Donation $20.00 $20.00
Dues $(7.42) $1,090.00 $1,082.58
Income/Interest $50.50 $52.22 $50.58 $153.30
Nov 09 Mtg walk up $2,360.00 $2,360.00
Nov 09 Mtg pre-reg $7,175.00 $7,175.00
Nov 09 Vendor $7,500.00 $7,500.00
Total Income $43.08 $52.22 $18,195.58 $18,290.88
Expenses Sept-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Total
CAT Assistant $1,500.00 $1,500.00
Nov 2009 Meeting $180.00 $11,880.34 $12,060.34
Proceedings $1,930.81 $1,930.81
Web Site $14.95 $14.95
Total Expenses $180.00 $1,930.81 $13,395.29 $15,506.10
Inc Less Expenses $(136.92) $(1,878.59) $4,800.29 $2,784.78
Treasurer Report (continued)
P A G E 1 7
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
California Association of Toxicologists Financial Report
3rd Fiscal Quarter 2009/2010 12/1/2009 through 2/28/2010
Income Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Total
Dues $460.00 $460.00
Income/Interest $52.31 $52.35 $47.32 $151.98
Total Income $52.31 $512.35 $47.32 $611.98
Expenses Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Total
CAT Assistant $1,000.00 $1,000.00
Continuing Educ. $240.00 $240.00
May 2010 Mtg $195.00 $195.00
Miscellaneous $109.62 $109.62
Nov 2009 Mtg $243.09 $328.80 $571.89
Proceedings $179.80 $179.80
Student Grant $2,307.78 $2,307.78
Taxes
State Filing $10.00 $10.00
Total Taxes $10.00 $10.00
Web Site $29.90 $1,214.95 $1,244.85
Total Expenses $1,562.41 $1,553.75 $2,742.78 $5,858.94
Inc Less Expenses $(1,510.10) $(1,041.40) $(2,695.46) $(5,246.96)
Treasurer Report (continued)
P A G E 1 8
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
November 2009 Meeting
Financial Summary
Income
Meeting Registration (pre-paid) $7,175.00
Meeting Registration (walk-up) $2,360.00
Vendor Support $8,500.00
Total Income $18,035.00
Expenses
Hotel Costs $11,274.87
Friday Social Event
Vendor Incentive Games
AACC Activity Fee $180.00
Board Meeting
Speaker Gifts
Meeting Supplies $243.09
Speaker Travel 934.27
Total Expenses $12,632.23
Income less Expenses $5,402.77
P A G E 1 9
CAT Survey
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Host Contact Information:
Host: John Musselman
Address: Phoenix Police Dept Crime Lab
621 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (602) 262-6197
Fax: (602) 495-0169
Sample Preparation:
Expired donor blood (400 mL) from United Blood
Services was fortified with the drugs on the re-
sults page. The target concentration for each are
listed. Two exceptions: I added what was left of
Topiramate from a 10mg powder (approx 1/2),
and the mirtazepine source was a pill.
Results:
See results page for quantitative statistics.
28 Participants
50% Identified all 11 drugs
71% 10 drugs
78% 9 drugs
85% 7 or more drugs
Case History:
A 49 year old female drove through a private
property gate. Officers reported she was disori-
ented and confused. A Drug Recognition Evalua-
tor (DRE) was called to assess the driver. A
Drug Influence Evaluation (attached) was submit-
ted with the sample of blood.
Discussion:
The Phoenix Crime Laboratory tests primarily
Blood and Urine collected in DUI cases.
This survey sample was based on a DUID case
where we received 3ml of blood. The DRE
evaluation was the actual one submitted with the
sample. The blood screened positive for Benzo-
diazepines and Carisoprodol (EIA). Any case
where a DRE calls CNS depressant, we perform
additional GC/MS screening because the likeli-
hood of finding more drugs is good.
More drugs, more ammunition. The purpose of
the survey was to share in the enjoyment of find-
ing numerous prescription drugs in a single case.
Thank you for participating and returning the re-
sults in such a short timeline. Overall, the results
are very encouraging and the average drug con-
centrations were very close to the target concen-
trations. See attached Excel spreadsheet.
P A G E 2 0
CAT Survey Results
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Lab # Chlordi-
azepoxide
Nordiazepam Alprazolam Carisoprodol Meprobamate Topiramate Doxylamine
Target 0.04 0.073 0.068 5.2 13.4 ~12 0.13
1 + <.010 0.06 4.5 15 + +
2 +
3 + +
4 + 5.4 13 13 0.12
5 0.04 11.2 15.6
6 0.024 0.07 0.069 4.8 12 10 0.15
7 0.064 0.067 7.1 15.1 + 0.111
8 + 0.1 + 5 13.4 +
9 + + 0.062 5.25 12.9 + +
10 + 0.061 0.053 4.8 13 12 0.12
11 0.06 0.09 <5 10 0.13
12 (r3) + <0.10 0.068 <10 13 16 0.15
13 0.038 0.067 0.067 9.1 24 0.13
14 + + + + + +
15(r2) 0.03 0.07 0.07 5 12 14 0.15
16 0.1 0.06 0.04 6.3 16.3 + 0.11
17 3.2 9.8
19 + + +
20 0.025 0.082 0.081 + + + 0.12
23(r1) + + 0.08 5.2 13 + 0.13
24 <0.05 <0.05 0.1 5.4 14 0.14
26 <0.05 0.08 0.08 <5 14.7 + 0.13
27 + + + + + + +
28 0.03 0.06 0.07 4.6 11.6 11.6 +
30 0.066 0.072 5.3 12.8 + 0.138
31 + 0.146 0.06 5.1 15.6 0.2
32 0.023 0.057 0.059 4.7 12 19 0.12
33 0.029 0.053 0.067 + + 19.5 0.087
Ave 0.037 0.073 0.068 5.7 13.8 14.4 0.132
Sd 0.026 0.023 0.015 1.8 2.9 3.5 0.024
Count 18 23 24 28 26 21 22
% 64 82 86 100 93 75 79
P A G E 2 1
CAT Survey Results
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Lab # Mirtazepine Sertraline Tramadol Zolpidem Comments All Drugs
found
Target Qual 0.32 0.39 0.13
1 + 0.21 0.46 0.14 Yes
2 + Benzo + 2
3 2
4 0.43 0.43 0.44 0.13 9
5 0.26 0.23 0.6 0.086 Benztropine 0.027? 7
6 0.4 0.37 0.47 0.12 Yes
7 0.373 0.285 0.375 + 10
8 + + 8
9 0.54 + 0.42 + Yes
10 0.33 + 0.39 0.108 Yes
11 0.44 0.31 0.51 0.13 9
12 (r3) 0.45 0.32 0.44 0.1 Yes
13 0.44 0.32 0.44 0.122 10
14 + + + + 10
15(r2) 0.42 0.37 0.44 0.13 Yes
16 0.37 0.31 0.41 0.11 Yes
17 + + 0.23 5
19 + Benzo + 4
20 + + + 0.13 Yes
23(r1) 0.39 0.37 0.43 0.12 Yes
24 0.48 0.25 0.4 0.14 10
26 0.41 0.3 0.45 0.15 Yes
27 + + + + Yes
28 0.46 + 0.44 0.12 Yes
30 0.382 0.416 0.401 0.145 10
31 0.56 0.43 0.65 0.12 10
32 0.38 0.4 0.37 0.17 Yes
33 0.332 0.4 0.4 + Yes
Ave 0.413 0.337 0.436 0.126
Sd 0.071 0.069 0.083 0.019
Count 25 26 24 24 14
% 89 93 86 86 28
P A G E 2 2
CAT Survey Program The Program:
The CAT Survey Program is a unique inter-laboratory exchange system in which host laboratories prepare survey samples for partici-pating laboratories to analyze. The program is similar ot a proficiency program, however; it may be util-ized to introduce new drugs and/or drug trends. The CAT Survey Pro-gram has been in existence for over ten years and is continually growing. It’s success is based on the strong involvement of laborato-ries across the nation and the many volunteers who help put the surveys together. If you have CAT Survey Program or if you have any questions, please contact the CAT Quality Assurance Chair, Jaime Lintemoot.
Why join?
Challenge your Laboratory’s existing analytical methods
Learn how other Laboratories approach drug analysis
Discover new and/or rarely en-countered drugs
Keep current on drug trends across the Nation
Use the survey samples an as external quality control
Requirements
Your laboratory must be lo-cated in the United States or
Canada
One analyst from your labo-ratory must be a CAT Mem-
ber**
**CAT Membership information and the application are available online at www.cal-tox.org
Mail participation form to:
Jaime Lintemoot
Los Angeles County Dept of the Coroner 1104 N. Mission Rd
Los Angeles, CA 90033
323-343-0672 [email protected]
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
CAT Survey Program Participation Form
Name______________________________ Type of Laboratory:
Lab________________________________ □ Clinical
Address____________________________ □ Forensic
___________________________________
___________________________________ Type of Specimens Analyzed:
Phone______________________________ □ Blood □ Serum
Fax________________________________ □ Urine □ Saliva
Email_______________________________ □ Other_________________
□ My laboratory is interested in hosting a survey sample for the CAT Survey Program
P A G E 2 3
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
Future Meetings and Short Courses-
Nik Lemos
49th Annual Meeting of the Society of
P A G E 2 4
C A L I F O R N I A A S S O C I A T I O N O F T O X I C O L O G I S T S N E W S L E T T E R
CAT Newsletter Editor: Kristina Takeshita
Suggestions/Comments? Please email Kristina at [email protected]
Only $20!
Send check payable to ―CAT‖ to the CAT Office.
Available in Men and Women’s sizes S-XL
Get yours today!
Polo
Shirts
Is your laboratory interested in hosting
an upcoming CAT Survey?
If so, contact our Quality Assuarance Chair,
Jaime Lintemoot at 323-343-0672
CAT Survey