UC Berkeley Environmental Health Sciences

04/12/2022

EHS Prof. Jay Graham and colleagues examine antibiotic use by backyard food animal producers in Ecuador.

Background Antibiotics are increasingly used throughout the world in food animal production for controlling and preventing disease and for promoting growth. But this trend also has the potential for promoting antibiotic resistance, which represents a threat to human, animal, and environmental health...

04/04/2022

EHS alum Patton Nguyen and Prof. Kathie Hammond examine fine particulate matter exposure from secondhand cannabis b**g smoking

This cohort study quantifies the levels of secondhand cannabis smoke from social b**g smoking in a home environment.

03/30/2022

UC Berkeley graduate schools and programs scored high in the 2023 Best Graduate Schools rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report.

03/29/2022

Prof. Jay Graham leads work with doctoral student Heather Amato and colleagues examining risk factors for third-generation cephalosporin-resistant and extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli carriage in domestic animals of semirural parishes east of Quito, Ecuador

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing and other antimicrobial resistant (AR) Escherichia coli threaten human and animal health worldwide. This study examined risk factors for domestic animal colonization with ceftriaxone-resistant (CR) and ESBL-producing E. coli in semirural parishes east ...

03/28/2022

Prof. Justin Remais awarded grant from the UC Health CDPH COVID-19 modeling consortium to study K-12 public health policies for mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 variant transmission in schools

The UC Health CDPH COVID-19 modeling consortium is pleased to announce the 2022 grant funding award recipients. The areas of focus for the funding were driven by priorities set by CDPH for gaining deeper understanding of COVID-19 matters, such as disease detection and impact, virus transmission and....

03/05/2022

EHS Prof. Carisa Harris Adamson, Athena Nguyen (MPH’21), and colleagues looked at movement patterns during prolonged sitting bouts to determine their association with musculoskeletal pain.

Sedentary behavior has increased steadily over prior decades, primarily due to increased computer use at work and at home. The total sedentary time pe…

03/04/2022

Our staff writer, Eliza Partika, sat down to talk with Dr. de la Rosa about her work and hopes for the semester.

02/23/2022

A recent study, led by a BPH PhD candidate, examined the correlation of biodigester use with child diarrhea rates in Nepal.

02/11/2022

Chancellor Carol Christ sent the following message to the campus community.

02/04/2022

Check out this important report that was just released OEHHA: "Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emission Limits within Disadvantaged Communities: Progress Towards Reducing Inequities." Thank you, Nicolette Zukowski (MPH '21), Johanna Roth (MPH '23), Lauren O’Neal (MPH '20), and Stephanie Ng (MPH '20) for your major contributions to this report!

OEHHA announces the release of its second report on the benefits and impacts of the state’s greenhouse gas emission limits near California’s vulnerable communities “Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emission Limits Within Disadvantaged Communities: Progress Toward Reducing Inequities”. This report h...

02/01/2022

Congratulations to Aaron Maruzzo, EHS MPH student, who was named a "Student who Rocked Public Health" by the Journal of Health Management & Practice! Aaron is recognized for his research and advocacy efforts around environmental justice and mitigating water contaminants, including a class of emerging contaminants called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Students Who Rocked Public Health in 2021 contributed to COVID-19 efforts as well as ongoing public health threats.

01/11/2022

EHS doctoral students, Heather Amato and Anna Smith, along with Prof. Jay Graham and colleagues investigate biodigester cookstove interventions and child diarrhea in semirural Nepal. Their analysis provides new evidence that child diarrhea may be an unintended health risk of biogas cookstove use.

Environmental Health Perspectives is an Open Access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

01/03/2022

EHS researcher Dr. Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem, Profs. Nina Holland and Andres Cardenas, along with colleagues examine maternal adverse childhood experiences before pregnancy and epigenetic age acceleration in their children.

Aging | doi:10.18632/aging.203776. Jamaji C. Nwanaji-Enwerem, Lars Van Der Laan, Katherine Kogut, Brenda Eskenazi, Nina Holland, Julianna Deardorff, Andres Cardenas

12/21/2021

Check out this NRDC post by Tessa Wardle, EHS master’s student, on chemical recycling of plastics.

I learned that the main form of “chemical recycling” that takes place in the United States is not recycling at all.

11/23/2021

EHS doctoral student, Anna Smith, Prof. Andres Cardenas, and colleagues evaluate associations of prenatal metals with mitochondrial DNA copy number and telomere
length in maternal and cord blood as biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress.

10/27/2021

Prof. Jay Graham and colleagues provide recommendations for reporting of studies on antimicrobial resistance in wastewater and related aquatic environments to improve the quality of scientific papers, enable meta-analyses and enhance the communication among different experts.

A One Health approach requires integrative research to elucidate antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment and the risks it poses to human hea…

10/26/2021

EHS Profs. Sadie Costello, Ellen Eisen, Dr. Sally Picciotto, and colleagues examine cancer incidence in the United Auto Workers-General Motors cohort exposed to metalworking fluids (MWF). Their results provide further evidence of associations between MWF exposure and several types of cancer.

Introduction Metalworking fluids (MWF) are complex mixtures of oils and chemical additives used to cool and lubricate metal machining operations. Previous studies have reported increased risk of specific cancers associated with MWF exposure. Objectives This report broadly examines cancer incidence i...

10/22/2021

Congratulations to EHS Alum Kristen Hwang, MJ, MPH ‘21 for winning the Student Academy Award for best documentary! 🎬🎉 Kristen’s documentary, “When They’re Gone,” is about humanity’s fragile dependence on nature and the consequences of industrializing honey bees for crop pollination.

Kristen Hwang’s documentary “When They’re Gone” has won the top honor for student documentary filmmaking in the 48th Student Academy Awards.

10/19/2021

Profs. Rachel Morello-Frosch, Josh Apte, and colleagues evaluate links between hyperlocalized measures of air pollution and preeclampsia during pregnancy in Oakland, California

Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon (BC), and ultrafine particles (UFPs) during pregnancy may increase the risk of preeclampsia, but previous studies have not assessed hyperlocalized differences in pollutant levels, which may cause exposure misclassification. We used data from Google St...

10/06/2021

Prof. Andres Cardenas and colleagues find that overall higher circulating levels of both maternal glucose and insulin in pregnancy were related to cord blood DNA methylation at a gene recognized as a type 2 diabetes epigenetic signature in blood cells of adults from different populations, and thus, may have identified a cord blood DNA methylation marker that signals long-term risk of diabetes over the life course.

Background: Previous studies suggest that fetal programming to hyperglycemia in pregnancy is due to modulation of DNA methylation (DNAm), but they have been limited in their maternal glycemic characterization. Methods: In Gen3G, we used a principal component analysis to integrate multiple glucose an...

10/06/2021

EHS doctoral student Heather Amato, along with Dr. Chris Hoover, Prof. Jay Graham, and colleagues assess the impact of public restroom interventions on reports of open defecation in San Francisco.

10/05/2021

EHS’ Dr. Isabel Jones, Prof. Justin Remais, and colleagues estimate factors associated with schistosomiasis risk in 16 villages located in the Senegal River Basin, a region hyperendemic for Schistosoma haematobium and S. mansoni.

Author summary Schistosome parasites infect more than 200 million people worldwide, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, where many people are at-risk for infection by multiple schistosome species simultaneously. To reduce the global burden of schistosomiasis, control of the parasites’ intermediate host....

09/27/2021

Profs. Andres Cardenas, Luoping Zhang, and Martyn Smith along with colleagues find that occupational exposure to some chemical carcinogens may accelerate epigenetic aging.

Epigenetic aging biomarkers are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We evaluated if occupational exposure to three established chemical…

09/22/2021

Prof. Jay Graham and colleagues explored the barriers to implementing an infection prevention and control program in rural district hospitals of Tamil Nadu, India by interviewing key stakeholders involved in the roll-out of the program.

09/11/2021

UC Berkeley welcomes an incoming faculty cohort, including Berkeley Public Health professors Laura (Layla) Kwong, PhD and Ajay Pilarisetti, MPH, PhD, as part of an initiative to promote research and education in climate equity and environmental justice. "It is imperative that we take up the challenge to address the greatest issues of our era, and to make an even larger commitment to climate equity and environmental justice," said Chancellor Carol Christ.

Read more: http://ow.ly/dl7D50G7hGQ

09/08/2021

Prof. Josh Apte and colleagues show local- and regional-scale racial and ethnic disparities in air pollution using Google Street View cars equipped with air monitoring devices.

It is known, to researchers and heavily impacted communities, that people of color face a higher average burden of air pollution. It was unknown whether racial/ethnic disparities were caused by spatial heterogeneities at the level of city blocks, neighborhoods, or urban regions. Our approach leverag...

09/03/2021

The study is the first randomized trial to examine the effectiveness of face masks at reducing COVID-19 in a real-world setting.

09/01/2021

“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a mandate to measure outdoor air quality and not indoor air quality — that’s just how our air quality regulations are set up. So, these kinds of crowdsourced data sets allow us to learn about how populations are affected indoors, where they spend most of their time" says Prof. Josh Apte in an interview regarding his research using crowdsourced indoor air quality data.

Scientists used data from a crowdsourced network of sensors to find out how well Californians are able to keep the air inside their homes safe on smoky days

09/01/2021

EHS graduate Sarah Dahlberg, EHS doctoral student Iemaan Rana, along with Profs. Luoping Zhang and Craig Steinmaus were interviewed by the Daily Cal on their research related to benzene exposure and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

In a study published Aug. 24, UC Berkeley researchers found that exposure to benzene likely increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

08/30/2021

EHS graduate Sarah Dahlberg, doctoral student Iemaan Rana, along with Prof. Luoping Zhang and colleagues examine the potential link between benzene exposure and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma by evaluating a wide array of cohort and case-control studies using electronic systematic review.

Our findings suggest a causal link between benzene exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, especially for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.