Environmental & Public Health

Earlier this week, the DEP revealed that its work so far in implementing the above-ground storage tank safety provisions of the landmark legislation have led to the discovery of 1,100 tanks that are “not fit for service” and need to be replaced or eliminated. “This is a great illustration of the above-ground storage tank act working,” said Evan Hansen, of Downstream Strategies. “It’s encouraging to see [the] DEP taking action on the tanks that present the highest risk to the state’s drinking water supply.”

Biology professors and graduate students at University of Massachusetts Boston are working to prevent future outbreaks of a foodborne illness like the one that caused oyster beds in Edgartown's Katama Bay to close last week. The Department of Public Health closed the beds Sept. 3 because of environmental conditions conducive to the growth of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in oysters harvested from the area.

Biologists have long thought that when large mammals, such as elephants and gazelles, are driven to extinction, small critters will inherit the earth. As those critters (think rodents) multiply, so will the number of disease-carrying fleas. Scientists have now experimentally confirmed this scenario, which is troubling because it could lead to a rise in human infection by diseases that can be transferred between animals and people.

Since 2004, an international testing program has certified 53 shipboard treatment systems as meeting ballast water discharge standards, including limits on certain microbes to prevent the spread of human pathogens. We determined how frequently certification tests failed a minimum requirement for a meaningful evaluation, that the concentration of microbes in the untreated (control) discharge must exceed the regulatory limit for treated discharges.

When San Francisco firefighters rush out the firehouse doors, sirens screeching on the way to fight fires, they put their lives on the line in more ways than one. In responding to roughly 28,000 fire calls a year, members of the San Francisco Fire Department are routinely exposed to flame retardants, diesel exhaust and other toxic chemicals that seep out of raging infernos and work their way into the air. A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that exposure increases firefighters’ risk of developing cancer. But until now, studies have focused on men.

New strains of illnesses and resulting infectious disease outbreaks are on the rise around the globe, Brown University researchers discovered after analyzing data from the last 33 years. Bruised as your eyes feel after reading that, also know there’s a general trend whereby each outbreak affects fewer people (the current Ebola crisis excepted). ...

Dr. Christina Hemphill Fuller, assistant professor of Environmental Health at the Georgia State University School of Public Health, has been named as a JPB Environmental Health Fellow by the Harvard School of Public Health. The new fellowship program is designed to provide a multidisciplinary training experience to junior faculty, with a focus on research into how the social and physical environment interact to influence health, especially in disadvantaged communities.

The research of Thomas Gill of the University of Texas at El Paso Department of Geological Sciences. Gill is studying dust, and has found that the tiniest speck of dust can impact health, the environment, and infrastructure. The shape of a dust particle has even been found to have an impact on the climate. Listen to an NPR interview about his research

From the American Journal of Public Health: The Drinking Water Disparities Framework: On the Origins and Persistence of Inequities in Exposure Carolina L. Balazs, PhD, and Isha Ray, PhDAt the time of research, both authors were with Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley. Contributors