Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH)

The complex interplay between routine antibiotic use and zoonotic pathogen presence makes livestock farming environments unique nexuses for the potential emergence of zoonotic diseases and/or antibiotic resistant bacteria and their resistance genes.

The COVID-19 pandemic was declared an international public health emergency on 30 January 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). To slow the spread of the virus, governments across the United States implemented physical distancing interventions in the form of stay-at-home orders.

Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 provides an approach for assessing theinfection burden across a sewer service area. For these data to be useful for public health, measurement variability in relation to normalization methods need to be established.

Background: There are a little under a million U.S. early childhood education (ECE) workers in 2020, and the ergonomic risk factors pertinent in this workforce is understudied. The purpose of the study was to conduct detailed worksite observations to comprehensively describe prevalence, durations, and frequencies of workplace exposures.

Tongue swabs have shown promise as alternatives to sputum for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Some of the most promising results have come from studies that used manual quantitative PCR (qPCR) to analyze swabs.

Background: Power plants are primary emitters of greenhouse gases and criteria air pollutants, which are associated with harmful health impacts including increased risk of premature mortality.

Introduction: Gentrification is a public health crisis and significant environmental injustice. Rapid gentrification of Seattle unequally burdens and displaces families of color further south in King County. Gentrification changes the environment, forcing readjustments that can compromise the continuity of education, healthcare, housing and employment.

Diarrheal disease remains a persistent global health threat and is ranked as the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five, with approximately 525,000 child deaths worldwide annually.

Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of wildfires. To reduce personal exposure to wildfire smoke and resulting adverse health effects, N95 respirators are increasingly used by the general public to filter out fine particles (PM2.5) present in smoke.

Oral swabs are emerging as a non-invasive sampling method for diagnosis of infectious diseases such as Ebola and tuberculosis. This project evaluated quality assurance strategies to assure proper sample collection. Two sample adequacy controls (SAC) that detect substances that are differentially present in properly versus improperly collected samples were assessed.

In this paper, we describe the way in which socioeconomic factors (i.e. language, socioeconomic status, and education), climate change, and the migration patterns of US farmworker populations affect health care utilization across the nation, specifically in Washington State.

Introduction

The University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Continuing Education Programs is designing a new online course titled “Agricultural Workers and Zoonotic Diseases: One Health Approach to Infection Prevention and Control on the Farm.” The course is in collaboration with UW Center for One Health Research and the UW Medicine, Division of Allergy and

The purpose of the document I helped create within my practicum project was to facilitate environmental protection-related connections and advance shared action to ensure customary and traditional subsistence activities can be maintained, improved, and sustained for generations to come.

Since time immemorial, First Nations shaped the environment around them to create and maintain highly productive societies. Today with the growing threats of a changing climate and continued nearshore development, important traditional resources may not be available for future generations.

Wildfire events are increasing in prevalence in the western United States. Research has found mixed results on the degree to which exposure to wildfire smoke increases the risk of mortality.

The pregnane X receptor (PXR) and constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) are important xenobiotic-sensing nuclear receptors, and their genetic polymorphisms are known to alter the pharmacokinetics of various xenobiotics.

Background: The US Safe Drinking Water Act does not regulate private wells, leaving over 42 million US residents with little regulatory oversight of their water quality. Trends in public water systems suggest that private wells in Latinx communities may have higher nitrate concentrations than wells in other communities.

Purpose of the Study: Older adults are more susceptible to adverse health outcomes during and after a disaster compared with their younger counterparts.

With current evidence of increased chemical contamination and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in environmental samples from the Salish Sea, it is important to examine its resident wildlife to further investigate the detrimental effects of these anthropogenic pressures.

Pediatric care guidelines recommend assessment of children for lead exposure during routine child care in the first two years of life. In Washington State, pediatric lead screening rates are among the lowest in the nation.

Background: Studies have reported that agricultural workers have elevated rates of respiratory health issues; however, the literature on respiratory function in dairy workers is limited and contradictory. Dairy work involves more exposure to dust and gases when compared to other occupations.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. As of 2015, about 3 million adults in the United States suffer from IBD. Health care costs in IBD patients are about 4 times more than in non-IBD patients.

Issues: Smartphones and other mobile devices have become important tools for collecting wellness and personal health information. To take advantage of this potential, an environmental justice organization is developing an app to help citizen scientists collect water samples and share water quality data.

Risk communication is an essential element to promoting disaster preparedness and building community resilience to disasters, which pose a serious and growing threat to public health and well-being due to climate change.

With antimicrobial resistance being one of the top global public health threats, integrated antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems are critical in gathering data, understanding resistance trends, creating stewardship plans and accurately quantifying resistance at national and local levels.

Recent studies have linked phthalates with type 2 diabetes, but limited research exists on the potential association between phthalates and gestational diabetes (GDM), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and continuous glucose tolerance measures during pregnancy.

Issue: Geographic isolation, climate change vulnerabilities, historical economic disadvantage and cultural connectedness to the environment place Northwest Tribal members at increased risk for poor outcomes in a disaster. (1) Throughout Pacific Northwest history, disasters both natural and man-made have disrupted the lives of Tribal communities.

Despite rapid economic progress, millions of lives in developing countries remain threatened by preventable health challenges resulting from poor environmental quality. Unprecedented rural-urban migration has left several cities in countries like India with pockets of densely populated regions lacking basic infrastructure.

Background: From recent OSHA investigations, many injured workers received inappropriate treatments from workplace medical units, which most of them are run by Licensed Practice Nurses (LPNs).