WHERE WE'VE BEEN...AND WHERE WE'RE GOING
The Biennium in Review
I am delighted to be reviewing the 2003–2005 biennium from a period of relative calm. The 2001–2003 biennium had been a tumultuous time for our department and for the country, and it is pleasing to see the progress we have made since then.
We enter the 2005-2007 biennium in good shape and with undimmed enthusiasm for the work we are doing and the challenges we aim to meet.
STUDENTS
(l to r) Betsy Gilbert, Rick Neitzel, and Susan Brower in a workshop about safety culture.
We continue to enjoy success in attracting highly capable and accomplished graduate students. We admitted our largest class since the mid-1980s in 2004, and are discussing ways to expand our graduate and undergraduate programs.
During the past two years, students received 25 under-graduate degrees, 31 MS degrees, 12 MPH degrees, and 10 PhDs. The outstanding undergraduate students were Christine Clark in 2004 and Paige Beckley in 2005. The outstanding graduate students were Jon Hofmann in 2004 and Samir Kelada in 2005. The bibliography on pages 51–56 shows about 20 papers published by students in academic journals. About 80% of our master’s students and 100% of our doctoral students publish in the scientific literature while in our programs or shortly after they graduate.
Our students have distinguished themselves in many ways, summarized on page 38. Two particularly notable achievements are the School of Public Health and Community Medicine’s Magnuson Scholar award, given to Yupeng Wang, a PhD student in toxicology, in 2005–2006, and the national 3M scholarship, awarded to Maggie Trabeau, a master’s student in Industrial Hygiene, in 2005.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT:
EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH CENTER RENEWAL
In 2005, the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety was awarded $1.285 million per year for the next five years. This training grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) enables us to support graduate students and serve as a regional resource for education and research in workplace safety and health. We have served in this role since 1977 and are one of 16 centers nationwide.
During the past five years, the center has graduated an average of five students in industrial hygiene, two in occupa-tional medicine, and six in occupational health nursing each year. The continuing education program reaches more than 1500 trainees annually, providing crucial health and safety information; in 2003–2005, this program trained almost 4000 professionals.
OEM PROGRAM
The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program was fortunate to add two senior faculty. Sverre Vedal, MD, MSc, a pulmonologist and well-known expert in occupational lung diseases and air pollution epidemiology, was recruited as a professor. Dennis Shusterman, MD, MPH, an occupational medicine and family medicine physician, was hired to direct the Occupational Medicine residency program. Dr. Shusterman has succeeded Matthew Keifer as residency director. In addition, Jordan Firestone, MD, MPH, an occupational medicine physician and neurologist, joined the faculty as medical director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic.
Our department strengthened its ties with the Preventive Medicine Residency program at Ft. Lewis and Madigan Army Medical Center, in Tacoma. This relationship has flourished, thanks to the work of UW faculty member William Daniell, MD, MPH.
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
Our undergraduate program currently enrolls 37 students—seven more than winter quarter of the previous year and 13 more than were enrolled at the beginning of the previous biennium. The increase continues a growth trend that began in autumn 2002, when we made an increased commitment to outreach, such as a collaboration with Bellevue Community College, where faculty member Charles Treser taught an Introduction to Environmental Health course to prospective UW transfer students.
Environmental Health undergraduate students participate in an enhanced laboratory analysis sequence that provides them a yearlong introduction to the methods and testing equipment used by specialists in the field. This provides students a rigorous introduction to microbiological hazards in the environment and an advantage as they seek employment.
FACULTY
Sally Liu reports findings of her school bus study to the community
We hired eight new faculty members in the 2003–2005 biennium. Evan Gallagher, PhD, (associate professor,
Toxicology) and Gwy-Am Shin, PhD, (assistant professor, Environmental Health) were recruited in the 2001–2003 biennium, and joined the UW in the spring of 2003. Dr. Gallagher is a molecular toxicologist who brings interests in ecological toxicology and the use of fish models to his research into environmental toxicants. Dr. Shin is an environmental microbiologist with a primary interest in ultraviolet disinfection of water and wastewater.
Our department also welcomed Joellen Lewtas, PhD, to the faculty, following her retirement as a senior scientist with the US Environmental Protection Agency. Her background in biochemistry and leadership at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development in carcinogenicity and other hazardous properties of atmospheric particulates is a strong compliment to our expertise and ongoing research.
In addition to Vedal, Shusterman, and Firestone, the Occupational and Environmental Medicine program added two affiliate faculty: Catherine Karr, MD, PhD (adjunct assistant professor, primary in Pediatrics and head of the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit), and Michael Silverstein, MD, PhD (clinical professor, who has held an auxiliary appointment for several years, and is developing a research program at UW).
The 2003-2005 biennium saw the departure of some valued colleagues: Professor Gerald van Belle and Assistant Chair for Outreach Sharon Morris both retired, but in typical depart-mental fashion, they are still pursuing interests here at UW on a part-time basis.
STAFF
Our professional and classified staff continue to provide the support that allowed us to successfully compete for a record amount of grants and contracts and to recruit and enroll a record number of students.
The departmental distinguished staff award went to Shannon Kirkpatrick, graduate program counseling coordinator, in 2004 and Namura Nkeze, undergraduate program manager, in 2005. Departmental outreach awards went to Chetana Acharya, Community Outreach and Education program manager, and Rick Neitzel, research scientist, for his exceptional efforts in noise reduction, teaching, and research. Raja Atallah, research scientist with our Environmental Health Laboratory, was the departmental nominee for the UW outstanding public service award in 2004 and Rory Murphy, manager of the graduate program, was the departmental nominee for the UW distinguished staff award that year.
RESEARCH
(l to r) Marianne Anderson and Michael Harris listen to a safety culture lecture.
The 2003–2005 biennium saw increasing pressure on federal grant programs, and competition for these funds is at an all-time high. We have been very fortunate to have had our funding base increase slightly over the prior biennium. Two major center grants (in air pollution and toxicogenomics) failed to be renewed, but four others (the NIEHS Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research and Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health, the NIOSH Education and Research Center, and the NIEHS Superfund Research Program) either have or likely will be extended for another multi-year term. Among the projects launched in the biennium are:
- Associate Professor Joel Kaufman received the largest grant ever awarded by the EPA for scientific research. The $30 million, ten-year grant established the MESA Air Pollution Study to investigate the connection between air pollution and cardiovascular disease.
- The Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Sciences was established with a five-year grant of $6.4 million from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Environmental Health. Professor Elaine Faustman co-directs the center with Ginger Armbrust, UW associate professor of Oceanography.
- Associate Professor L.-J. Sally Liu received a five-year, $3 million grant from the NIEHS to study the effect on children’s health as school districts in the Puget Sound area retrofit old diesel engines and take aging buses off the road.
- Professor Noah Seixas, Research Scientist Rick Neitzel, Associate Professor Bill Daniell, Associate Research Professor Lianne Sheppard, and Professor Hendrika Meischke (Health Services) were awarded a four-year grant from NIOSH to study the effectiveness of three modes of controlling noise exposures on construction sites.
- Professor Mike Yost received funding to develop a micro-fabricated aerodynamic lens array aerosol concentrator. Yost’s team hopes to develop a new way to detect potentially hazardous low-level releases of toxic or virulent pathogens.
RECENT INITIATIVES
We have funded a number of projects that link directly to our workplace safety and health mission, including communicating pesticide health risks to agricultural producers, workers, and their families; training educators to work directly with teens to reduce work-related injuries and illnesses; and supporting internships so our students can receive work experience at the Department of Labor and Industries.
To better disseminate our research findings to the affected industries, Noah Seixas, PhD, and Bill Daniell, MD, MPH, have published research reports from their hearing loss studies in construction and other industries. These reports, plus construction supervisor booklets and worker brochures, can be downloaded from http://depts.washington.edu/occnoise.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Several federal research grants contributed to a 32% increase in our overall budget from that of fiscal biennium 2001-2003. Our department ranked third on campus in grant and contract awards for fiscal year 2004–2005 with $28 million in grants, exceeded only by the departments of Medicine and Pathology.
This continues the steady growth of the past decade. When combined with funds derived from indirect costs on grants, federal revenue accounts for about two-thirds of our total departmental support, up from about half in 1993–1995 (see figure 1). In 2003–2005, we saw a decline in private and miscellaneous support, which accounted for about 6% of our budget.
Our state funding consists of a combination of allocations provided directly by the Washington Legislature through the Medical Aid and Accident Funds (MA/AF), state research grants and contracts awarded to our investigators, and funds distributed by the UW central budget office. In 2003–2005, our overall state funding increased by approximately 9%, driven by increases in return of indirect costs from federal grant activity. Other components of state funding remained flat or declined.
Our department’s success relies on its ability to combine state and federal resources to fund our interrelated teaching, research, and service missions. During the 2003–2005 biennium, we tapped some new sources for student funding, such as an agreement with Madigan Army Medical Center and the UW’s Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP). As an example from figure 2, the cost of tuition, fees, stipends and assistantships for our graduate students is spread among faculty research grants, program training grants, state funds, and other sources.
The increase in our federal funding in the 2003–2005 biennium also reflects grants that Gallagher, Vedal, Shin, and Research Scientist Phillip Butterfield brought with them when they joined our department.
SERVICE:
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH LABORATORY
Our service programs continued to thrive in 2003–2005. Russell Dills, PhD, who had been overseeing the Environmental Health Laboratory (EHL) since 2000, was named its director in 2005. The laboratory provides sophisticated chemical analyses to industrial hygiene practitioners in the state, and to other departmental service, teaching, and research activities.
With matching funds from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, the EHL acquired an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer with collision cell, which can analyze for nearly all of the elements in the periodic table at parts-per-trillion sensitivity. A High Performance Liquid Chromatograph has been combined with this machine to allow for speciation of elements such as arsenic by chromatography.
The EHL worked closely with the Field Research and Consultation Group (Field Group), consulting on chemical hazards, chemistry, and sampling and providing analytical services (819 analyses; 45 clients).
The support the lab has historically provided to firefighters and fire departments in Washington state was expanded to address additional research issues. The lab provided education, testing, and technical assistance to 76 fire departments and related agencies. The EHL provides the only certified breathing air analysis in Washington and was one of the pioneer groups in establishing the certification program. Last year, at the request of the Renton Fire Department, the EHL developed sophisticated measurement capabilities to evaluate the chemical safety of three fire extinguishing agents.
SERVICE:
FIELD RESEARCH AND CONSULTATION GROUP
Russell Dills (left) of the EH Lab and Marc Beaudreau (center) of the Field Group worked with Renton firefighters to compare the safety of fire suppressants.
The Field Group performed 75 consultations for clients such as woodworking shops, sawmills, building contractors, battery manufacturers, and foundries. The Field Group provided research opportunities for students, such as Michael Harris, who compared fall protection training programs in several air craft maintenance facilities for his master’s thesis. Field Group clients hosted 11 graduate student interns. Among the 15 Field Group research projects this biennium were collaborations with the Seattle Metal Arts Guild and the Washington Automotive Services Association.
SERVICE:
OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE CLINIC
The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic expanded its scope of practice by adding three new faculty physicians. The clinic continues to provide occupational health services for WISHA inspectors, Seattle firefighters, and UW HazMat responders, and comprehensive consultation services for patients, physicians, workers, and employers throughout the Pacific Northwest. In a typical year, the clinic sees about 700 patients, of whom about 40% are referred by the workers’ compensation system.
The clinic has relocated from the main Harborview hospital to the new Pat Steel Building, which has an integrated service center, complete with radiology, lung function testing, and laboratory facilities. The clinic shifted from a paper-based system of billing, communication, and charting to computerized accounting, telecommunications, and record keeping. During the biennium, the clinic initiated a pulmonary challenge chamber for the diagnosis of occupational asthma, the first of its kind in Washington.
The clinic has begun a multidisciplinary collaboration with its colleagues in spine, neurosurgery, and rehabilitation medicine to provide consultation services for injured workers with complex orthopedic conditions. These consultations have strengthened the partnership with the Department of Labor and Industries, which includes the clinic’s role as the state’s Center of Excellence for Chemically Related Illness.
LOOKING AHEAD
The first few months of the 2005–2007 biennium offer reasons for cautious optimism. Our successes in recruiting faculty and winning grants give momentum to research initiatives in air pollution, Superfund research, and ocean sciences.
Our research funding base appears stable for the near future, but our faculty, like their colleagues across the country, are feeling the effects of shrinking availability of federal grant support and growing demand. We anticipate needing to work harder to stay even, and there will likely be some areas where long-standing lines of research experience interruptions.
Our graduate programs are working to maintain their relevance and efficiency by restructuring program requirements, reconfiguring courses, and offering new courses. We continue to build interdisciplinary collaborations with other divisions on campus, such as public policy and international health, and student interest is growing in these areas.
We are building capacity in our research, service, and educational outreach efforts. New laboratory technology in chemical and gene expression analysis has increased the capabilities of our service programs. We have nearly completed facilities redevelopment at our Roosevelt Way location, and will be fully occupying the space in the 2005–2007 biennium.
We have formed new partnerships for worker training and educational outreach with universities in California and Arizona, and with private sector training organizations. This has already enhanced our ability to identify and respond to educational needs in health and safety for populations not well served by existing training opportunities.
In the 2005-2007 biennium, we expect to continue progress in research and teaching while extending the scope and impact of our service work. There are clear opportunities for increasing dialogue with Washington employers and business organizations. Partnership with those groups, along with state agencies, labor groups, and public sector organizations, can achieve common objectives in improving occupational and environmental health in Washington state. We wish to thank those who have supported these initiatives along the way, and we would like to invite you to become engaged with our department as we continue into the 2005-2007 biennium.
-David Kalman, chair