RESEARCH

Student Research | Faculty Research Expertise | Centers and Institutes | Health Topics, A to Z
Service to our Community | Environmental Justice | Selected Publications

During the past 25 years, the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences has become a leading center for research into occupational and environmental health problems. This research ranges from basic science to community-based participatory research projects.

We invite you to explore our impact on research through our centers, institutes, and community service. Our top research topics are highlighted here.

Selected Student Research Highlights

Rick Neitzel, PhC, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene (PhD expected 2009)

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Noise induced hearing loss is a classic public health problem - the disease is irreversible and progressive, but 100% preventable. Graduate student Rick Neitzel has a passion for the topic.

His love of applied academic research led him into the PhD program in Environmental and Occupational Hygiene. He expects to complete his doctorate next June. His dissertation finds him in the field, improving methods for assessing occupational exposures in dynamic industries such as construction, as well as evaluating the success of interventions designed to increase workers' awareness of occupational hazards. More...

Clarita Lefthand, MS, Environmental Health (2008): Tracking Pollutants in Tulalip Bay

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An eagle crosses the overcast sky as University of Washington students wade in the muck of a low tide, carefully filling and cataloguing sample jars. The setting is spectacular, the task less so. They are trying to determine the sources of fecal contamination in Tulalip Bay, which has forced the Tulalip Tribes to post "no swimming" signs and close a subsistence fishery and productive shellfish beds.

Clarita Lefthand, the quiet woman at the center of the activity, combines science with a passion for her people. Although she belongs to the Navajo Nation 1400 miles to the south, she feels a strong connection with the Tulalip Tribes. More...

Ami Tsuchiya, MS, Toxicology (2006): Mercury Exposure Testing

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A small snip of hair rarely changes anyone's life. But for Ami Tsuchiya, it revealed a level of mercury in her body so surprising that it spurred her toward a new course of study.

While pursuing her master of public health degree in nutrition at the University of Washington in 2002, Tsuchiya took part in an environmental health class project focused on mercury exposure through fish consumption. Separately, she had an opportunity to have her hair tested. "That project was really intriguing because, having a nutrition background, I thought fish was really good for you," she said. "And then I saw my mercury level. So I thought maybe I should really study this." More...

Melissa Winters, MS, Environmental Health (2008): Environmental Law

Melissa Winters became interested in Environmental Health as a law student at Seattle University, where she studied with Catherine O'Neill, an expert in environmental justice and environmental law.

With O'Neill, she worked on a research project reviewing the impacts of the EPA's proposed rule for regulating mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Her analysis made her realize that the harms of the proposed rule will be visited disproportionately on Native Americans, especially tribes catching and eating fish from hot spots such as the Great Lakes. More...