CORE--ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

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Abstract

This newly restructured research core includes the complementary scientific disciplines of environmental epidemiology and human exposure assessment. This Core will bring together two key research methods, epidemiology and exposure assessment, in a program that will be directed at the health consequences of exposures in urban environments. The focus of the core will shift to the complex multi-media and multi-pollutant exposures that characterize contemporary urban environments, especially Baltimore, which has persistent concerns about environmental hazards and disease risks. Research emphasis is placed on cancer and respiratory diseases, such as asthma. Exposures of concern include outdoor air pollutants, occupational exposures, and cigarette smoke. There will be an effort made to apply a molecular epidemiology paradigm in which biomarkers of exposure, dose, response, and susceptibility are exploited to sharpen epidemiologic research. The core includes faculty from the Departments of Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology, and Health Policy and Management, and has interactions with numerous interdepartmental and inter-institutional programs, including the Cancer Prevention and Control Program of the Oncology Center of the School of Medicine and the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute within the School of Hygiene and Public Health. The stated objectives of the Core are: 1) to develop community-based studies in order to characterize exposures sustained by urban dwellers and associated health effects; 2) to characterize the factors determining exposures to environmental agents as a basis for implementation and evaluation of control measures; 3) to develop resources of biological materials for biomarker-related research; 4) to develop new methodological approaches in epidemiology, environmental health sciences, and biostatistics that can be applied to research on environmental hazards and impaired health; 5) to work collaboratively with the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute to develop initiatives in risk assessment; and 6) to continue the development of training programs in environmental epidemiology and exposure assessment.