Ian Moran, a Graduate Fellow in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, recently discussed his research during an Environmental & Molecular Toxicology seminar. Ian has recently focused on pollutants found in creosote. Creosote is a wood treatment product, tar mixture, contains hundreds of different chemicals, and people use it to treat things such as telephone poles or railroad ties.
Card News is a form of information technology that visualizes major issues
at a glance. In other words, the information is designed for social media, breaking away from the text-based structure of general news.
Our Center is using social media to highlight our research projects. We started card news as one strategy to do this. Card News is a form of information technology that visualizes major issues at a glance. In other words, the information is designed for social media, breaking away from the text-based structure of general news.
While only approximately 1 inch long, zebrafish are remarkably similar to humans. Understandably, their size and appearance may cause doubt about how much information they can give us about human health impacts of chemical exposures. To help explain the use of zebrafish and other unique research tools within our Superfund Research Program, we developed two educational infographics for public distribution.
In the beginning, before the “Two-Leggeds” walked the Earth, creator came and asked who would help take care of them. The first to come forward were the Salmon. The relationship between salmon and Native People in the Pacific Northwest goes back to the beginning of time. People take care of the land and the water so that the animals and the fish can live and remain healthy, and the animals and the fish then take care of the people by feeding them and providing nourishment. Have we come to a point where we have polluted the land so much that the fish are now polluting us?
When a wildfire breaks out public health recommendations are to stay indoors and close all windows, but is that the best advice? Toxicology researchers at Oregon State University are very interested in understanding the effect of wildfires on indoor and outdoor air quality. Dr. Kim Anderson and her team have been collecting samples before, during and after wildfires in the Pacific Northwest using community-engaged research for the last three years to help improve public health recommendations.
Dr. Diana Rohlman (Research Translation Core) was invited to speak at the 2018 Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Annual National Disaster Epidemiology Workshop in Atlanta, GA.
She discussed her collaborative work with Dr. Kim Anderson in designing a disaster response IRB, allowing rapid response in the event of a disaster. This IRB was activated following Hurricane Harvey, and shared with the University of Texas – Houston, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M, allowing those three schools to receive disaster-specific IRBs as well. In addition, Dr. Rohlman highlighted the on-going work being done in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, using the passive wristband samplers. Dr. Kim Anderson is working with Baylor College of Medicine and UT-Houston to collect information from over 200 individuals living in the Houston area that were impacted by the extreme flooding. A total of 13 Superfund sites were flooded. Dr. Anderson’s analytic methods can detect up to 1,550 different chemicals in the wristband. This information will be reported back to the impacted communities, and is hoped to provide important information for future disasters to prevent or mitigate chemical exposures.
March 13, 2019
This past week, 18 Science and Technology Liaisons (STL) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came to a 2-hour training offered by our Superfund Program. Dr. Stacey Harper (Co-coordinator, Research Translation) welcomed the participants to Oregon State University. She and Michael Barton (Research Translation) previewed the new visualization tool being developed in our Superfund; a network analysis tool that can visualize connectivity between SRP projects.
OSU Disaster Research Highlighted at Upcoming NIEHS Community-Based Participatory Research Workshop in India | February 26-28, 2019. New Delhi, India
Workshop Agenda available here: https://www.pria.org/event_details.php?id=26&evtid=465
The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences recently released their new strategic plan. Three dominant themes emerged:
Scientific research is designed to build knowledge and explore. Sometimes, that means changing previous ideas. In the US, we have a system that reviews and updates toxic chemicals. In 2017, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) was updated. BaP is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) (https://superfund.oregonstate.edu/all-about-pahs). It is also a carcinogen. Exposure to a carcinogen may increase cancer risk.
The Samish Indian Nation invited Blair Paulik (OSU SRP Project 4 Trainee) and Diana Rohlman (OSU SRP CEC Coordinator) to the 3rd annual Fidalgo Bay Science Conference on October 23, 2014.
