Research Areas
My main area of research has focused on heavy metals exposure and effect. The current emphasis is on the relationship between mercury and selenium exposure and balancing the risks against benefits of fish consumption. Much of this work involves Native American and Alaskan Native communities.
A second area focuses on the environmental consequences of energy options, examining nuclear options in the light of the spent nuclear fuel impasse and the Fukushima disaster vs unintended consequences of renewable energy. This has been developed as an outgrowth of our CRESP work on hazardous waste, risk management, and land use decisions with the U.S. Department of Energy.
A third area focuses on incorporating workplace health and safety equity into the EPA’s “Environmental Justice” paradigm.
Research Highlights
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Dr. William K. Hallman is a Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. An experimental psychologist with expertise in consumer perceptions of risk and risk communication, his scholarship has focused on numerous issues concerning health, food, technology, and the environment. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, abstracts, and monographs, including studies of public perceptions, communications, and behavior change strategies involving environmental contaminants, unexplained symptom syndromes, infectious and non-infectious diseases, food safety, foodborne illness outbreaks, food recalls, food insecurity, food labeling, nutrition, and preventive health behaviors. He has also conducted extensive studies of consumer perceptions and acceptance of new food technologies including genetically modified foods, nanotechnology in food and agriculture, gene editing, and cell-cultured meat, poultry, and seafood.
Dr. Hallman is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Climate Crossroads Advisory Committee, a member of the US FDA’s Nonprescription Drug Advisory Committee (NDAC), and a member of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness Recall Modernization Working Group. He has served as the Director of the Rutgers Food Policy Institute, as Chair of the FDA’s Risk Communication Advisory Committee, and as a U.S. Delegate to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Food Safety Cooperation Forum, which published the APEC Food Safety Risk Communication Framework and Associated Guidelines. He is a co-author of the Risk Communication Applied to Food Safety Handbook, published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). He is also a co-author of Communicating Science Effectively, A Research Agenda, published by the National Academies.
Recent Publications
Dr. Kipen received his BA from UC Berkeley and his MD from UC San Francisco and MPH from Columbia University. He completed an internal medicine residency at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, and a fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Environmental Sciences Laboratory, in Manhattan.
Research Areas
Dr. Kipen’s research focuses on clinical and epidemiological studies of the health effects of ambient and indoor air pollution. He works closely with Rob Laumbach of the CROM division as well as Debra Laskin and Andrew Gow of Toxicology. They use both controlled human exposure models and real-world clinical studies to develop and test mechanistic biomarkers of air pollution toxicity. Concentrating on biomarkers of cardiopulmonary effects, prior studies have examined fresh diesel exhaust and secondary organic aerosols. We are currently studying effects of controlled ozone exposures on macrophage phenotypes in induced sputum. Working in the real world, we have examined cardiopulmonary and oxidative stress outcomes in highway passengers who were driven in a diesel-enriched enriched environment. More recently we examined the ability of portable air cleaners to reduce indoor particulate air pollution and consequent biomarkers of cardiopulmonary health in elderly apartment dwellers. In light of the current pandemic we have used our experience measuring and filtering particulates in homes to examine SARS-coV-2 aerosols in patient homes. A more recent interest is to explore underlying mechanisms for the robust human finding of acute cognitive impairment from inhaled CO2 at commonly encountered levels.
Research Highlights
With former EOHSI members Jim Zhang and David Rich, we conducted a panel study of 130 Beijing medical students built around the Chinese Government’s drastic reductions in air pollution during the 2008 Olympics. We observed broad declines in multiple oxidative stress, inflammatory, and platelet activation biomarkers. Major results have been published in JAMA and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine with multiple subsidiary papers and a complete report published by the Health Effects Institute. We have Analogous increases in vascular and pulmonary oxidative stress have ben demonstrated after a 90 minute ride on the NJ Turnpike. Similar findings have been found using controlled exposure to fresh diesel exhaust iin our controlled environment facility. Related effects have been shown with New Jersey air pollution on the Turnpike and are being evaluated with air cleaners in individual homes.
Significant declines in proteasome (UPP) activity after exposure to secondary organic aerosol and diesel exhaust were observed immediately following exposure in healthy subjects, although our prior work did not reveal apparent nasal inflammatory effects from acute exposures to secondary organic aerosol. The above declines in proteasome activity showed a significant interaction (3-fold increase) in subjects with the ILE/ILE polymorphism of GSTP1.
Scholarly Activities
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Research Areas
Current research interests are focused on two areas: 1) the interactive effects of exposure to multiple air pollutants and psychosocial stressors, and their cumulative impact on urban disparities in asthma, heart disease and cancer and 2) biological mechanisms underlying the effects of diesel exhaust and other air pollutants on pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. Approaches include community-based participatory research, controlled exposure studies, and semi-controlled “real-world” environmental exposure studies.
Research Highlights
Scholarly Activities
Recent Publications
Research Areas
Research Highlights
Scholarly Activities
Recent Publications
Education
Current Professional Activities
Memberships
Honors
Research Interests
Dr. Pratt is interested in the recognition, management, and prevention of illness and injury from conditions and exposures in the home, community, and workplace environment. He works to advance occupational and environmental resident physician education. He is a principle investigator (PI) on the NIOSH training grant and the PI for an annual national survey of Occupational and Environmental Medicine program directors. His most recent interests include occupationally-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Research Areas
My chief area of interest is health effects of World Trade Center exposures, including aerodigestive medical effects, as well as the interaction of both physical and mental health effects and exposure to toxins. I am also interested in health issues in health care workers, laboratory workers, teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. I am interested in occupational and environmental asthma and other respiratory conditions.
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Scholarly Activities
I serve on the steering committee for World trade Center medical monitoring and treatment program. I have presented grand rounds concerning World Trade Center in statewide, national, and international forums. I serve as Director of employee health and have spoken nationally at several physician meetings.
Recent Publications
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