Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) continue to reshape the regulatory, legal, and scientific landscape. As new federal and state requirements emerge and the scientific understanding of PFAS expands, organizations are increasingly challenged to make defensible decisions regarding product stewardship, workplace exposures, environmental liabilities, and human health risks.
Successfully navigating these challenges requires more than tracking changing regulations. It requires understanding the science that drives this shifting landscape.
RHP Risk Management helps manufacturers, product developers, employers, municipalities, law firms, and other organizations evaluate PFAS hazards and exposures, interpret evolving toxicological and epidemiological evidence, and develop practical, science-based strategies that support informed business decisions.
Whether your organization is evaluating products, assessing exposures, responding to regulatory changes, supporting litigation, or planning for future compliance, RHP provides multidisciplinary expertise grounded in rigorous science.
Why Organizations Partner with RHP for PFAS Human Health Risk Assessments
PFAS-related challenges rarely fit within a single discipline. Effective solutions often require integrating toxicology, exposure science, epidemiology, industrial hygiene, engineering, and regulatory expertise.
RHP’s multidisciplinary team brings these areas of expertise together to provide practical, scientifically defensible solutions tailored to each client’s specific needs.
Human Health Risk Assessment
Evaluate potential human health risks by integrating exposure assessment, toxicology, epidemiology, and weight-of-evidence evaluations to support scientifically defensible risk characterizations.
Exposure Science & Industrial Hygiene
Characterize occupational, consumer, and environmental PFAS exposures through monitoring, modeling, industrial hygiene assessments, and exposure reconstruction.
Regulatory Strategy & Product Stewardship
Navigate evolving federal, state, and international PFAS regulations while supporting product stewardship, alternatives assessment, hazard communication, and long-term compliance planning.
Litigation & Scientific Support
Provide scientific literature reviews, expert consulting, exposure evaluations, weight-of-evidence analyses, and expert witness support for complex PFAS litigation and regulatory matters.
Melanie Buser, PhD, DABT, MPH
Government Scientific Leadership. Practical Consulting Solutions.
RHP’s PFAS practice is led by Dr. Melanie Buser, a Board-Certified Toxicologist with more than a decade of experience in environmental health, toxicology, epidemiology, and human health risk assessment.
Prior to joining RHP Risk Management, Dr. Buser served in scientific leadership roles with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Throughout her public-sector career, she helped evaluate complex environmental contaminants, develop health-based guidance values, and lead interagency scientific initiatives involving PFAS, contaminants of emerging concern, sustainable chemistry, and environmental health policy.
Today, she combines that experience with RHP’s multidisciplinary consulting capabilities to help organizations understand complex scientific issues, reduce uncertainty, and make informed business decisions.
Former CDC & ATSDR Scientist
Developed toxicological profiles, evaluated human health effects, and supported health-based guidance values for high-profile environmental contaminants, including PFAS.
Former White House Environmental Health Leader
Led government-wide scientific initiatives across more than fifteen federal agencies addressing PFAS, contaminants of emerging concern, sustainable chemistry, and environmental health policy.
Board-Certified Toxicologist & PhD Epidemiologist
Integrates toxicology, epidemiology, exposure science, and weight-of-evidence approaches to evaluate chemical risks and support regulatory decision-making.
Trusted Scientific Advisor
Works with manufacturers, attorneys, product developers, employers, and regulatory professionals to translate complex science into practical business strategies.
Melanie Buser, PhD, DABT, MPH PFAS Experience
Government Scientific Leadership
- Led development of the White House National PFAS Report (2023)
- Led interagency PFAS initiatives involving more than 15 federal agencies
- Coordinated federal scientific consensus on PFAS research priorities
Toxicology & Risk Assessment
- Chemical Manager for ATSDR’s Toxicological Profile for Perfluoroalkyl Substances
- Developed health-based screening values and risk assessment guidance
- Evaluated toxicological, epidemiological, and exposure evidence for PFAS
- Supported state and federal agencies on PFAS risk assessment and interpretation
Scientific Research
- Author of multiple peer-reviewed PFAS publications
- Ongoing research evaluating PFAS exposure and birth outcomes, cancer incidence, and mortality
- Expertise in weight-of-evidence evaluations and systematic review methodologies
- Experience integrating toxicology, epidemiology, and exposure science into human health risk assessments
How RHP Can Help
Whether you’re responding to new regulations, evaluating potential liabilities, supporting product stewardship initiatives, or preparing for litigation, RHP provides scientific expertise across the entire decision-making process.
Our scientists develop hazard summaries, evaluate toxicokinetic and dose-response considerations, assess epidemiological evidence for causality, and tailor PFAS risk communications for technical and nontechnical audiences.
Human Health Concerns
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- Conduct toxicology, epidemiology, and exposure assessments
- Exposure characterization
- Dose-response evaluation
- Risk characterization
PFAS Regulatory Strategy
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- Interpret emerging regulatory requirements and scientific implications at all levels
- Federal
- State
- International
Exposure Science
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- Occupational
- Environmental
- Consumer products
- Modeling
- Industrial hygiene
Product Stewardship
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- Alternative evaluation
- Chemical substitution
- Safety documentation
- Lifecycle considerations
- Assistance with warnings/labeling
- SDS language development support
Litigation Support
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- Expert review
- Weight of evidence
- Scientific strategy
- Expert testimony
Why Does Federal Government Experience Matter?
Many PFAS regulations and health guidance values are built upon decades of scientific evaluation performed by federal agencies.
Our experience developing toxicological profiles, evaluating epidemiological evidence, conducting weight-of-evidence assessments, and participating in federal scientific consensus-building provides clients with valuable insight into the scientific principles underlying today’s regulatory decisions.
Understanding how guidance values are developed, not simply what they are, helps organizations make more informed, scientifically defensible decisions.
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
ATSDR
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
White House OSTP
Office of Science and Technology Policy
RHP Risk Management
Applying federal scientific rigor to private-sector PFAS strategy
Peer-Reviewed PFAS Research
RHP’s Frank Pagone, PhD, CIH, is a contributing author on peer-reviewed manuscripts establishing safe dose ranges for PFOA and PFOS — research that has directly informed the scientific and regulatory understanding of these compounds. His work on the PFOA safe dose study was recognized as Best Paper of the Year by the Society of Toxicology’s Regulatory and Safety Evaluation Specialty Section, and his PFOS research contributed to a landmark international study.
These publications reflect the same rigorous, defensible science RHP brings to every PFAS engagement.
Let’s Start the Conversation
Whether your organization is developing a product, responding to regulatory changes, evaluating potential human health risks, or seeking scientific expertise for litigation or compliance, RHP can help.
Contact Dr. Melanie Buser and the RHP Human Health Risk Sciences team to discuss your PFAS or emerging contaminant challenges.
