Environmental Health News: People & Places

PEOPLE & PLACES

Recent alumni placements include Chris Ballew (MS, 2006) working at The Boeing Co. and Elizabeth HomM (MPH, 2006) with the California Department of Environmental Health.

Phillip Buff

Roosevelt building receptionist Phillip Buff received the King County Combined Fund Drive sustained excellence award for his work on this year's charity drive.

Senior Lecturer Janice Camp is on sabbatical until May, experiencing policymaking directly. She is working with Sen. Patty Murray's staff on the US Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee in Washington, DC.

Chris Carlsten, MD (MPH 2006) had an article accepted by the Journal of the American Medical Association as first author, "Potential for genetics to promote public health: Genetics research on smoking suggests caution about expectations," JAMA 2006; 296:2480-2482.

Professor Lucio Costa gave a lecture on "mechanistic studies in developmental neurotoxicology" at the International Conference on Food Contaminants and Neurodevelopmental Disorders held in Valencia, Spain, in December. Early this year, he served on an EPA review panel of the risk assessment of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)

Professor Richard Fenske had an editorial opinion piece published in the Feb. 2 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer titled "Misuse of science serves no one."

Xuemei Geng, a graduate student working with Professor Mike Rosenfeld, received a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association that will partially support her for the next two years. Geng is in the interdisciplinary graduate program in Nutritional Sciences.

Lecturer Rick Gleason was keynote speaker for Tri State Construction’s annual New Year Safety Day and spoke at the NIEHS trainers’ workshop Phillip Buff in Las Vegas. His topic was "using humor and case histories in effective training."

Karen Hanson is the new assistant to the chair, replacing Stephanie Timm. Hanson comes from the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine’s development team. Cynthia Curl (MS, 2000) is the new manager of the MESA Air Pollution project, replacing Sue Swan. Monica Leibrant from Electrical Engineering replaced Amy Bomberger as graduate program coordinator. Ruth Woods, manager of the Institute for Risk Assessment and Risk Communication, left to become administrator for the UW Department of Bioengineering.

Assistant Professor Peter Johnson and the Industrial Hygiene program received a $25,000 gift from Microsoft. Johnson and the ergonomics center worked with Microsoft to develop its next generation ergonomic computer mouse, the Microsoft Natural Wireless Mouse 6000, released this January. The gift supports Johnson’s research into how workers use computer input devices and helps promote safe and healthful computing work environments. Johnson also attended the NIOSH Educational Research Centers meeting in Charleston, SC, in February.

Sham Juratli, MD (MPH, 2005) had an article published in the November 2006 issue of Spine titled "Lumbar fusion outcomes in Washington State Workers’ Compensation."

Heather Klintworth (MS, 2005) was accepted on the Environmental Pathology/Toxicology Training Program grant in January. Heather is a PhD candidate. Her training grant is expected to last for five years.

James Meadows

James Meadows, undergraduate program manager, is working with the Seattle Biotech Legacy Foundation to fund an internship with Public Health–Seattle & King County. He is working with the health department on other internship opportunities for undergraduates.

In February, Rick Neitzel, research scientist/ graduate student, spoke at the annual conference of the National Hearing Conservation Association in Savannah, Georgia, on noise exposure measurement. In March, he led training on hearing loss prevention for the Western Washington Association of General Contractors in Bellingham.

The Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (PNASH) presented a health fair at the Washington Governor’s Ag Safety Day in Yakima on Feb. 22. PNASH was joined by partners Columbia Valley Clinic and Yakima Valley Dermatology. The fair included demonstrations of the fluorescent tracer technique for viewing pesticide exposure, a knowledge game about heat stress, and screening exams for blood sugar, blood pressure, and skin cancer.

Carrie Sadovnik

Carrie (Carrel) Sadovnik (MS, 1996) is the new director of employee health and safety for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She oversees occupational health and safety for about 6000 employees engaged in emergency preparedness day-to-day operations. Carrie worked with the Field Group before moving to New York.

Brian Toal (MPH, 1981) co-authored a book, What’s Toxic, What’s Not (Berkley Books, 2006), a common-sense guide to the confusing world of toxic information for the general public. Toal is supervisor of the Environmental and Occupational Health Assessment Program at the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Senior Lecturer Chuck Trese gave presentations at two conferences in Dublin last June about environmental health workforce needs, the Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute, and the relationship between land use and health. Treser is one of 30 academics who are writing the new certification examination for graduating students from public health schools. He also attended the Washington State Joint Conference, the statewide Environmental Health Directors meeting, the Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute, and the American Public Health Association meeting, where he chaired the Education Board and co-chaired the APHA Joint Policy Committee.

Professor Mike Yost is sponsoring a Mary Gates Scholar, Sarah Widder, a junior in Chemical Engineering. Sarah is studying air pollution from indoor cooking sources in rural China and is spending this year there studying and collecting air samples.

Joseph (Jay) Smith, John Kissel, and Jeff Shirai presented a paper on "Balancing input and output of chlorpyrifos and TCPy in the CTEPP children" at the Society of Risk Analysis conference in Baltimore in December. At the same conference, Scott Meschke, Nancy Beck, Kissel, Shirai, and Smith presented a paper on "Assessment of norovirus exposure from consumption of Puget Sound shellfish impacted by large vessel wastewater discharges."

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