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Areas
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Chemical and Microbiological Water Pollution
Throughout the United States, anthropogenic pollutants increasingly
compromise our nation's waterways; and waterborne diseases continue
to be major source of morbidity worldwide. By studying chemicals,
aquatic macro-organisms, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and protozoa
using multidisciplinary approaches we can begin to understand their
fate and ecology in aquatic ecosystems. This information can be
used to model water quality and protect public heath.
Aquatic organisms are excellent sentinels of water quality, as
they are more intimately associated with water-borne pollutants
and exposed to higher pollutant concentrations than are humans.
Biological markers of effect developed in the laboratory and validated
in the field by EHS researchers are tools for identifying and understanding
transport and fate of chemical and microbiological pollutants.
Surveys of aquatic fauna that include physiological, biochemical
and histopathological assays are correlated with environmental
contaminant levels, land use characteristics, or other measurements
of environmental impairment to assess water quality and the potential
for impacts to human health. Current projects in this field of
study include:
- Fate and toxicity of pharmaceuticals (specifically the selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors--Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox and
Celexa) in the aquatic environment.
- In-situ assessment of small, headwater streams impacted by
suburban pesticide runoff.
- Impacts of urban land use on resident fish health parameters
and correlations with land use metrics.
- Potential causes for the disappearance of largemouth bass
in the Okefenokee Swamp.
- Assessing mine-related heavy metal toxicity in the Tisza River,
Hungary
- Expression of environmental attachment genes in Vibrio cholerae,
the bacterium that causes cholera.
- Sediment adsorption assays of Vibrio cholerae.
- Analysis of historical fecal coliform, rainfall and stream
flow data to develop recreational water quality models.
- Stability of enteric viruses in marine microcosms.
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Child and Maternal Health
Expectant parents worldwide share the same hope: to have normal
healthy babies. Research in the EHS Department includes projects
designed to understand the mechanisms and effects of exposure to
chemicals and biological agents that can cause morbidity and mortality
in children and expecting mothers. Such reproductive and developmental
toxicants include common pesticides present in multiple environmental
media and pathogens that can occur in food. For example, infectious
agents such as the microbe Listeria monocytogenes are known to
cause important adverse effects ranging from low birth weight to
mortality. Some of the current projects in this area are listed
below. Other research related to child and maternal health is described
in the Developmental Toxicology section. Current projects related
to child and maternal health include:
- Infectious Agents
- Establish a valid animal model for effects of infectious agents
on pregnancy and development.
- Identify immunological markers of exposure to infectious agents
that can be used to develop effective treatment strategies.
- Pesticides and Air Pollution
- Measurements and models of longitudinal, multiple media, and
multiple chemical exposure to non-persistent insecticides by
children and expecting mothers.
- Relationship between ambient particle exposures and pediatric
asthma in Atlanta in collaboration with Emory University and
Georgia Tech.
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Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment
The type, magnitude, and mechanisms of effects of chemical and
biological pollutants on human and other organisms constitute the
domain of environmental toxicology. Faculty, fellows, staff, and
graduate students in the EHS Department conduct basic and applied
research in environmental toxicology.
Some laboratory-based projects in the EHS Department are ascertaining
the mechanisms by which chemical toxicants cause developmental
effects such as disrupted growth and differentiation of the skeletal
system. Other laboratory-based projects explore use of the nematode Caenorhabiditis
elegans as a toxicological screening method for mammalian and
human systems. Potential ecological effects of industrial chemicals
and pharmaceuticals on fish, invertebrates and bivalves are investigated
in laboratory exposures with standard aquatic test organisms such
as selected zooplankton and alternative test species such as freshwater
bivalves and fish.
Environmental toxicology research results are essential inputs
to risk assessments and eventually risk management decisions designed
to balance protection of public health and economic development.
For example, EHS researchers work in the field of computational
toxicology to bridge basic toxicological data for test animals
to potential effects on humans and other sensitive receptors. In
addition, research is conducted to develop dose-response information
for infectious agents and mixtures of chemicals that can be used
by regulatory agencies to assess risk and develop public health
policy.
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Exposure Assessment and Environmental Epidemiology
Environmental epidemiology is the study of human disease in relation
to factors in the environment. Assessment of exposure to environmental
agents for populations and individuals is an essential component
of environmental epidemiology. The potential effects of air pollutants
and pesticides are the focal points of exposure and epidemiological
research in the EHS Department. By understanding the health risks
of exposure to these chemicals, we can identify those that impair
public health in a meaningful way. By understanding the sources
and pathways of exposure to complex pollutants that are present
in multiple environmental media, we can develop effective strategies
for reducing health risks.
The potential effect of hazardous chemical and physical agents
in occupational settings is a special application of exposure assessment
that is critical to public health and economic development in the
United States and the world. EHS researchers are engaged in a number
of studies that relate to occupational health and support the department's
academic curriculum in industrial hygiene. Current exposure assessment
and environmental epidemiology projects include:
- Dietary intake of pyrethroid and organophosphate insecticides
by children and relation to biomarkers of exposure.
- Organophosphate pesticide exposure levels in children of Jacksonville,
FL.
- Lindane and permethrin urinary metabolites in children being
treated for ectoparasites in Dawson and Forsythe County, Georgia.
- Smoke particulate exposures and health effects related to
prescribed fires in Georgia forests for fire fighters.
- Personal and occupational exposures to air pollutants from
motor vehicle emissions in Peru.
- Cytokine production by alveolar macrophages and dendritic
cells exposed to ambient and source-specific particulate matter.
- Chemical and physical stressors in the coal-fired electric
power industry.
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