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Staff

Veda Marija Varnai

Division of Occupational and Environmental Health

Contact

Place and date of birth

Zagreb, 22 May 1969

Education

  • 2002-2005 Occupational medicine specialist; School of Medicine, University of Zagreb
  • 2002 PhD thesis; School of Medicine, University of Zagreb
  • 1999 Master of Science thesis; Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Zagreb
  • 1988-1995 School of Medicine; University of Zagreb

Work Experience

  • From 1997 Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (IMROH), Zagreb

Fields of interest

  • Epidemiology: Impact of environmental and occupational factors on human health
  • Regulatory toxicology: Member of ECHA’s Risk Assessment Committee (assessment of the proposals for harmonised classification and labelling (CLH), restriction and authorisation of chemicals, and occupational exposure limits (OEL) proposals); dossier evaluation for registration of plant protection products
  • National poison control centre: 24-hour duty
  • Statistical analysis: Analysis of experimental and epidemiological data

Additional training

  • September 2023 STATA workshop “Bayesian Model Averaging”, STATA Corp. LLC., USA; virtualno
  • May 2023 EFSA project workshop „Preparatory work on how to report, use and interpret historical control data in (eco)toxicity studies“; virtualno
  • March 2019 Workshop on CLH-related human health issues, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), Helsinki, Finska
  • February 2019 BTSF Training Course on the Application of the “EFSA/ECHA GUIDANCE to identify ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS”, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), Brussels, Belgium
  • May 2017 International workshop on Risk Assessment of Endocrine Disruptors: derivation of
  • reference doses (tolerable exposure levels) for humans, University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark)
  • April 2017 Continuing Education Programme – Mixtures Toxicity and Risk Assessment, BTS (The British Toxicology Congress) 2017, Liverpool, UK
  • April 2016 2nd course on Computational toxicology and Modelling tools, EFSA, Parma; RIVM, the Netherlands (Parma, Italy)
  • 2006-2011 Training in the risk assessment in the area of human health risk assessment of pesticides under the European CARDS and twinning projects
  • June 2005 Summer School on Modern Methods in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Karolinska Institutet, Cison di Valmarino, Italy
  • October 2002 Bone Histomorphometry Training Course, European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS), Aarhus, Denmark
  • September 1998 EUROTOX Education Course “Principles of Risk Assessment”, Pula, Croatia

Awards

  • Annual Prize for Young Scientists and Artists for a research achievement in 2001 awarded by the Society of the University lecturers and other scientists in Zagreb; Annual Award for the best Ph.D. thesis in the Biomedicine field, defended at the Medical School of the University of Zagreb in academic year 2001/2002;
  • Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health Award for original scientific paper published in Current Contents journal in 2005

Other

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS           

  • 2024-2027    HumEnHealth: Interactions between human and environmental health: determinants for health preservation; Principal investigator: J. Macan, PhD; Funded by: European Union – Next Generation EU; project’s team member
  • 2022-2029    PARC: Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals; coordinator: French Agency for Food Safety, Environmental Protection and Occupational Health (ANSES); Funded by: Horizon Europe 2020 (Grant No 101057014) and Member States; project’s team member
  • 2020-2025    PyrOPECh: Exposure to pyrethroid and organophosphate insecticides in children – risk assessment for adverse effects on neuropsychological development and hormonal status; Funded by: Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2019-04-7193); principal investigator

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE  

  • From 2022 Clinical toxicology of insecticides and rodenticides in humans; First aid at work and hygiene and technical protection measures; postgraduate study “Sanitation”, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb
  • 2012-2021 General toxicology; Biotechnology and drug research, undergraduate study, Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka
  • From 2009 Professional diseases, toxicology and pathology; Occupational and sports medicine, postgraduate study, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb

OTHER ACTIVITIES           

  • From 2013 Member of the Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki

List of publications

CroRIS