Environmental and Population Health Biosciences

• Cancer risk and risk factors among volunteer and career firefighters.

• Adverse effects of occupational dust exposure and interactions with modifiable personal risk factors, including tobacco and alcohol use and obesity.

• Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure and health outcomes in occupational and community settings

• Pregnancy cohort studies examining the impact of prenatal exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals and psychosocial stressors on children’s development

• The largest study of how the environment shapes U.S. children’s health- the NIH-funded ECHO program

• Personal care products as a source of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals

• A pregnancy cohort in Thailand to investigate the effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides on child neurodevelopment

• Aircraft cabin exposures within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

• Discoveries and approaches for the use of computational biology within risk assessment and taking these results backward to identify the routes of human exposure within the the Computational Chemodynamics Laboratory and the NIEHS Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease (CEED).Controlled Exposure Studies in the EOHSI Controlled Exposure Facility.

• Exposure modeling and monitoring research activities as part of the New Jersey Risk (NJrisk) project.

• Air toxics and populations at risk in urban neighborhoods within New Jersey and other parts of the World (Italy and China).

• Robotic sampler development to mimic behaviors of children in the home.

• Characterization of risks associated with the use of a variety of products such as synthetic turf on athletic fields.

• Nanoparticle exposures and pharmacokinetics within the Risk Assessment for Manufactured Nanoparticles used in Consumer Products (RAMNUC) and Respiratory Effects of Silver and Carbon Nanomaterials (RESAC) Centers that are collaborations with Duke University and other Universities in the US and the United Kingdom.

• Homeland security research within The University Center for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response (UCDPER) and the Command, Control and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA).

• Hazardous wastes in NJ and NY, with a specific emphasis on chromium in Jersey City, and other sites in NJ.

• Controlled Exposure Studies in the EOHSI Controlled Exposure Facility.

• Artificial turf research

• Hazardous wastes at superfund sites

• Biological markers of internal exposure in New Jersey populations (general and site specific)

• The lung microbiome

• Commuter traffic exposure

• Healthy buildings

Some of the major national and international field studies we have participated in:

• National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS)

• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

• Total Human Environmental Exposure Study (THEES)

• Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM)

• Air Pollution and Health Effects in four Chinese Cities

• The Aftermath of the Attack on the World Trade Center (WTC)

• Relationships of Indoor, Outdoor, and Personal Air (RIOPA)

• Principal New Jersey Firefighters Cancer Prevention Project, looking at cancer risk among New Jersey volunteer and career firefighters. The long-term goal of this work is to reduce cancer incidence and mortality among firefighters.

• Investigating the evaluate associations between health outcomes and multiple estimates of exposure to poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), with an emphasis on perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), among members of highly exposed communities conditions, including work pace bullying and harassment,  and contribute to workplace and other injuries

• Evaluating the contribution of World Trade Center related exposure to exposure to head neck cancer, given the etiologic role of tobacco use, heavy alcohol use and oral infection with the human papilloma virus in the incidence of cancer of the head and neck

The Division, through the work of the Computational Chemodynamics Laboratory (CCL) has developed a theoretical framework for understanding exposure, which is applied to specific issues associated with the source-to-dose continuum. It is an innovative system called MENTOR (Modeling Environment for TOtal Risk) and is described in a 2006 article by Georgopoulos and Lioy. MENTOR has expanded in scope and activities to include pharmacokinetic modeling as well as individual exposure modeling.

The Exposure Science and Epidemiology Division has been a partner within the FAA Center of Excellence on Airliner Cabin Environment Research (ACER). The Center’s goal has been to conduct scientific research to support FAA’s and the flight industry’s mandates to promote a healthy and safe environment for the flying public and crew within commercial airline cabins. The partner universities have conducted research on ozone and ozone chemistry, pesticides, cabin pressure, causes of incidents, development of sensors, disinsection, contaminant transport, and disease transmission within aircrafts. We have conducted projects on exposure to ozone and its byproducts, pesticides, and flame retardants within the aircraft cabin and have developed risk assessment paradigms that can be applied to chemical or biological agents within an aircraft through a combination of measurement and modeling techniques.