Environmental Engineering & Toxicology

Fellow Rachel Morello-Frosch believes, despite the uncertainties, doctors and other clinicians can offer women very useful advice. For example, diets rich in organic foods reduce exposures to pesticides, as measured by urinary levels of their metabolites. And people can choose not to buy body lotions known to contain phthalates or furniture with foam cushions steeped in flame-retardants. Indeed, advising patients on the best ways to reduce potentially toxic chemical exposures is an essential component of public health prevention.

While blood lead levels were declining, scientific evidence was mounting to show there is no safe level of exposure to lead in infants and young children. Studies showed that adverse neurological effects were happening at lower and lower levels of lead exposure. In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the level of lead in blood used to identify those with elevated exposure to 5 µg/dL. Today, approximately 500,000 children have levels at or above 5 µg/dL.

A yellow torpedo prowls the Monterey Canyon, gliding over fields of eerie red and white clams nearly 3,000 meters below the surface. The submarine then slips down deep to survey the little-known creatures sprawled beneath it. Here in the darkness, otherworldly life abounds in the cold, crushing depths of the Pacific.

Purdue University will play host to a three-day Ideas Lab this month [January 2016]. The goal of the event is to create interdisciplinary teams and research pre-proposals for new agricultural technologies in food security.

Standing on the edge of Schoolhouse Pond, Chris Roman and Marcella Thompson watched as an unmanned kayak traveled back and forth across the pond in a series of calculated switchbacks. When it had completed its mission, the vessel returned to its starting point, where the two University of Rhode Island researchers were waiting.

COEH faculty affiliate Asa Bradman from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health became chair of Biomonitoring California’s Scientific Guidance Panel (SGP) effective November 2015. Dr. Bradman has been a member of the SGP since 2007, first appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and later reappointed by Governor Jerry Brown. Dr. Bradman will coordinate with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), one of three state departments that implement Biomonitoring California, to facilitate three SGP meetings annually. ...

To study elusive wolverines in the wild, you need to know where they occur. To figure out where they occur, you need wolverines to trigger remote research cameras. To get wolverines to trigger the cameras, you need to attract them with a strong scent, which naturally fades after two to four weeks. To keep that scent refreshed after it fades, you need to hike into backcountry terrain with deep snow and dangerous avalanche conditions in the winter—and that’s where it gets tricky.

With conventional centrifugal (CEN) pumps, less than 50% of southern Bangladesh's farmers invest in irrigation, partly due to high diesel energy costs. New policies are prioritizing sustainable crop intensification in Bangladesh's delta. This objective is unlikely to be achieved without fundamental changes in the energetics and economics of irrigation. Where surface water is available, axial flow pumps (AFPs) may comprise part of the solution to this problem.

Fellow Judith Rubin wrote this article in 2003, but it still holds today. Feel free to use the "Writing a Gift Letter" sidebar at the bottom of the article to encourage your own relatives and friends to rethink their giving habits.