COVID-19

Maria-Crina Curca. Photo: Elizar Mercado.

In the early days of March 2020, Seattle-based anti-hunger nonprofit Northwest Harvest raided their food stores meant for as late as July to create boxes of shelf-stable food for vulnerable populations sheltering in place. Meanwhile, in every corner of the state, consumer habits were shifting.

Affording food is such a challenge in Washington state that residents who experience food insecurity say their grocery bills are their biggest source of financial stress, more so than paying for rent or utilities.

Wastewater surveillance was a valuable component of the US public health response in the nation’s emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is worthy of further development and continued investment, says

Jennifer Otten, a faculty member and food systems scholar in the UW School of Public Health, has been appointed to the Washington State Food Policy Forum. The cross-sector group was formed by the Washington State Legislature in 2016 to make recommendations for improving food systems in the state.

For Esther Min, the most effective public health science starts with listening to the needs of communities.

When Marissa Baker introduces the field of occupational health to her undergraduate students, she asks them to think of a job they or someone they know has had, and what they didn’t like about the job.

Register now for Joseph Allen's Nov. 3 talk: "Healthy Buildings: The Nexus of COVID, Climate and Worker Health" As director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program, Joseph Allen often invites people to take their age and multiply it by 0.9.

About 100 staff, faculty and student workers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) were designated “essential workers” by the UW and worked in person throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain critical DEOHS work and services.

Tiny pollution particles can cause major health problems. Our research shows how to minimize your risk.

Inna Antonchuk MPH, Environmental and Occupational Health Hometown Rivne, Ukraine Future plans Continuing to work as a nurse as well as applying her public health training, perhaps with a government agency “I am very interested in immigrant occupational health but also in public health policy."

Katy Burr MPH, One Health Hometown Seattle, WA Future plans Joining the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service program “I'm hopeful that my work will help to illuminate ways to keep people who work with animals safer at work.” - Katy Burr

Tips for wearing an N95 or KN95 mask: Improve the fit by pinching the metal nose clip around the bridge of the nose. N95s have straps that go around the back of your head.

Read the report Tribal communities in Washington state experienced increased food insecurity during the pandemic, according to a new report by researchers at the Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center (NWTEC), a division of the Northwest Portland

In 2021, the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) welcomed new faculty, forged collaborations in climate and health, and continued our innovative, community-oriented environmental health research on areas including air pollution, COVID-19 and the far-reaching health impacts of wildfire smoke across Washington state. Explore our top stories below.

A new study led by faculty in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and the Nutritional Sciences Program explores how the COVID-19 pandemic affected access to food in Washington in the areas of both food production and food assistance, and how the state can learn from the pandemic and take advantage of new opportunities.

My PhD adviser approached me with an unexpected opportunity in June 2020. A colleague in Portugal was looking for students to study at his university in Lisbon as part of the US Fulbright Student program. This was something I had never considered. But completing a year of my PhD in Lisbon was not a chance I was going to pass up.

As the COVID-19 pandemic created economic hardship and food insecurity for many families, a key governmental program for nutritional support pivoted to offer remote services and more flexible food options.

Assistant Professor Marissa Baker

During the pandemic, it’s even more important than usual to wash our hands and clean surfaces in our homes regularly. But all this cleaning can come with health and safety risks: children can accidentally consume household cleaners, and breathing in fumes from products like bleach and ammonia can be hazardous.

This month, many in Washington state return to workplaces and schools for the first time since March 2020, when the state closed in-person schooling and issued stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Last year, the University of Washington Population Health Initiative awarded COVID-19 population health equity research grants to three projects involving partnerships between UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and community leaders.

Diana Marquez hopes to become a certified industrial hygienist serving agricultural workers in the Yakima Valley. Photo courtesy of Marquez.

For his unflagging encouragement of students and his inspiring teaching, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) Professor Gerard (Jerry) Cangelosi has been awarded the 2021 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.

Renée Codsi MPH, One Health Hometown Beirut, Lebanon Future plans Starting a PhD in Environmental & Occupational Health at DEOHS in the fall.

DEOHS Assistant Professor Sarah Collier

How to wear a mask: best practices “Help keep Washington safe and healthy: Mask up,” read signs along Washington freeways, reminding drivers of the state’s mask mandate to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The world has pledged to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2035. COVID-19 threatens to move the goalposts. In Jerry Cangelosi’s lab at the University of Washington—as in many labs and clinics around the world—efforts are being pulled from TB into COVID-19 research and diagnostic testing in response to the global pandemic.

Esther Min, DEOHS research consultant and Front and Centered environmental health lead.

Seattle city officials are vowing to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines among people of color, immigrants and other groups disproportionately left out of vaccination efforts.