Occupational Health

Research led by Environmental Health majors in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) was featured yesterday at the School of Public Health's Undergraduate Symposium.

Amanda Durkin BS, Environmental Health Hometown Hingham, MA Future plans A career in occupational health and an eventual MBA degree. “One thing I will miss about the UW is the opportunity for constant learning and growth.” - Amanda Durkin

Annie Doubleday MPH, Environmental and Occupational Health Hometown Shoreline, WA Future plans Working on air pollution and climate change issues at the state or local level.

DEOHS at the Washington State Legislature UW DEOHS faculty and research will help inform state policy as part of several bills passed by the Washington State Legislature this spring:

Industrial hygiene wasn’t on the short list of career choices for Noah Seixas until he got an up-close look at a workplace incident that exposed millions of people to a hazardous chemical.

Washington is considered a national leader in efforts to reduce prescription drug overdose, thanks in part to changes in opioid prescribing practices championed by Dr. Gary Franklin.

Galvin’s team is seeking additional funding to continue app development.

“OK, who do we have next?” Dr. Esi Nkyekyer leans forward, listening intently as a medical fellow describes her next patient.

The UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) will soon incorporate virtual reality (VR) into our worker health and safety training programs—a kind of digital “apprenticeship” that could save real lives on the job.

[Reprinted with permission from the fall 2018 edition of Northwest Public Health magazine.] Jenna Buchanan is on a mission to improve the culture of safety at Boeing. She seeks to learn lessons not only from accidents but also from close calls.

Growing up in the Middle East, Hamzah El-Himri experienced firsthand what can happen to communities when health and safety regulations are lacking.

On Thursday, Sept. 27, the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) kicks off our fall seminar series featuring a diverse array of speakers sharing the latest science on environmental and workplace health.

What’s the fastest-growing job category in America? You might guess tech or health care. But you’d be wrong.

In the mostly un-air-conditioned Pacific Northwest, summer temperature spikes can be uncomfortable. But for outdoor workers and other vulnerable groups, they can be deadly.  Research led by the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) has found that on hotter days:

From Washington’s swim beaches to Amazon’s Fulfillment Centers, students from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) are getting an up-close look at their future careers as health and safety professionals this summer.

Stanley Freeman joined the University of Washington in 1977 for what was supposed to be a one-year stint to launch an industrial safety program. That short-term job turned into a 20-year career as he discovered his passion for teaching.

Eating salmon may be good for you, but catching them for a living could be hazardous to your health.

Vanessa Vargas showed up for her first day at her new job with her heart pounding so loud it nearly drowned out the sound of construction equipment at the Seattle building site where she had been hired as a carpenter apprentice. Vargas was the youngest person on the work site, the least experienced—and the only woman.

Miriam CalkinsPhD, Environmental and Occupational HygieneHometownHarvard, MassachusettsFuture plansAssociate Service Fellow, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

 Editor's note: Professor Michael Yost joined the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) in 1993 and was named department chair in 2014. 

Dr. Fellows is an environmental scientist for the Hazardous Waste Management Program at Public Health - Seattle & King County, where she focuses on Safer Alternatives. Her research interests include alternatives assessments, climate change impacts on human health, geospatial analysis, pesticides, and lead in consumer products.

Dr. Sklar's research focuses on environmental health, emphasizing exposures to invisible populations that are disproportionately burdened with environmental hazards. These populations have included waste workers in sub-Saharan Africa, people incarcerated in the United States, and frontline communities in wildfire-prone areas.

Dr. Ronish is a board-certified pulmonologist and occupational and environmental medicine specialist at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. She is currently the medical director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic, where she supervises and teaches residents and manages patients with a variety of occupational and environmental injuries and illnesses.

Peter Johnson, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences exposure sciences program and conducts ergonomics-related research.

Dr. Il Je Yu's research links human environmental exposure to toxicology, specializing in inhalation toxicology with occupational toxicology, nanotoxicology, safe chemical management and industrial hygiene, including exposure assessment.

Gail has her doctorate in Public Health from the University of Texas, School of Public Health. She is a Certified Industrial Hygienist. Currently she has joint appointments as a Visiting Professor with Universidad de La Sabana, Faculty of Nursing, Bogotá, Colombia and as an Occupational Health Instructor for Texas A&M University.

Dr. de Castro’s research focuses on population health inequities and inequalities by examining how employment opportunities, job conditions, and work organization contribute to chronic stress and occupational injury and illness risk; utilizing longitudinal analyses, biomarkers, large survey datasets, and engagement with minoritized groups.

Debra Cherry, M.D., M.S., is a board certified physician at Harborview, director of the UW Medicine Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency and a UW associate professor of General Internal Medicine and an adjunct associate professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. 

Chris Zuidema is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences with expertise in exposure assessment, air pollution, and occupational health.

Dr. Diana Ceballos is an assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. Her life’s passion is to address health disparities by identifying environmental factors that cause disease, injury or impairment.