Pollution

Magali Blanco and Gabino Abarca from the University of Washington School of Public Health were selected to take part in the inaugural Latino Center for Health Student Scholars Fellowship program.

Ola i ka Wai. Water is life. Tyler Gerken MS, Environmental Health Hometown: Kea’au, Hawai’i Island, HI Future plans: A career in the US Public Health Service, perhaps as an environmental health officer for the National Park Service or the Indian Health Service

Water is essential for life, but in communities with inadequate sanitation, it can also spread diseases like polio, typhoid and hepatitis A. By monitoring wastewater and water sources contaminated by wastewater for pathogens in fecal matter, researchers and public health workers can help stop waterborne illnesses in their tracks.

Rural children with asthma whose homes have an indoor air cleaner are 72% less likely to have an unplanned clinic or hospital visit than children in homes with no air cleaners, according to a study from the University of Washington and partners in the Yakima Valley.

Washington is expected to face increasingly smoky summers. A few things you can do to prepare now:

 

As a physician with a passion for science, social justice and patient care, Dr. Joel Kaufman gravitated to public health from his earliest days as a college student pursuing BA and MD degrees in a combined six-year program.

Communities underneath and downwind of jets landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are exposed to a type of ultrafine particle pollution that is distinctly associated with aircraft, according to a new University of Washington study that is the first to identify the unique "signature" of aircraft emissions in Washington state.

  A group of air pollution researchers from the University of Washington, led by the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS), met with Chinese counterparts in Beijing earlier this month and returned enthusiastic about opportunities for future research collaborations.

Long-term exposure to air pollution—especially ozone pollution—accelerates the progression of emphysema of the lung, according to a newly published study

Washington is on the road to 100 percent clean energy with the passage of a new law championed by Gov. Jay Inslee that sets targets for achieving zero-carbon electricity by 2045.

Kori VanDerGeest MPH, Environmental Health Hometown Albuquerque, NM Future plans To conduct community-based public health research. “What really excites me about what I did in the last two years is being able to respond to a community need.” - Kori VanDerGeest

Editor's note: This study, which ended in 2019, found that communities underneath and downwind of jets landing at Sea-Tac Airport are exposed to a type of ultrafine particle pollution that is distinctly associated with aircraft.

How much traffic-related air pollution are you exposed to every year in Seattle? UW researchers will drive tens of thousands of miles this year along a meticulously mapped route through Seattle to answer that question. (In a hybrid vehicle, of course.)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to change how it tallies up the costs and benefits of rules limiting mercury emissions—a move two University of Washington experts say would make it harder to protect people from the harmful health effects of air pollution.    It’s a new front in the two-decade-long battle to regulate toxic mercury emi

It was at the height of California’s worst drought on record that Esther Min saw for herself the power of data to help low-income families. “People’s water bills were skyrocketing, wells were drying up, families were driving miles away to buy bottled water,” said Min, who was working on a water-access study in the Salinas Valley in 2014.

A group of 15 air pollution experts—including three scientists from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS)—say recent changes made by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have damaged the quality and credibility of the EPA’s scientific review process for federal clean air standards.

[Reprinted with permission from the new 2018 edition of Northwest Public Health magazine.]  For the past two summers, the western part of the United States has experienced extraordinary wildfire seasons.

The Pacific Northwest’s “new normal” is starting to feel like old normal in Washington’s Methow Valley. This is the fifth summer in a row that wildfire season has hit the Methow Valley especially hard, causing hazardous smoke conditions that persist for weeks and leaving residents feeling trapped and isolated.

We’re learning more all the time about the health risks of breathing dirty air—and the news is alarming.

Nothing about Lake Killarney’s idyllic appearance hints at the potential cancer risk lying below the surface. The shallow lake in South King County, Washington, is ringed with homes and the headquarters of the international relief organization World Vision. The lake is favored by waterfowl, rich with aquatic plants and stocked with rainbow trout, largemouth bass and other fish.

Graeme Carvlin PhD, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene Hometown Flemington, NJ

I see toxic chemicals everywhere.

Lianne Sheppard imagined a career in service to both science and the public good when she joined the UW faculty 24 years ago. She never anticipated that one day, she would have to choose between them.

Dr Bai serves as a Research Professor and PI with the Ambient Particle Health Criteria Group in the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, in addition to serving as an adjunct professor and tutor of graduate students in several Chinese universities.

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. Rachel M. Shaffer works on chemical assessments in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Dr. Shaffer has a broad background in environmental health sciences, with graduate training spanning experimental toxicology and human epidemiological research as well as experience in science policy and risk assessment.

Dr. Judit Marsillach is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health. In May 2021, she was appointed as the Sheldon D. Murphy Endowed Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health.

My work focuses on neurotoxicology and behavior, primarily using rodent models. I am interested in the molecular and biochemical bases for inter-individual and inter-species differences in susceptibility to environmental chemical exposures, especially with regard to particularly-susceptible populations.