The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program’s research mission is to promote occupational and environmental medicine as a discipline by advancing the scientific understanding of complex workplace and community environmental exposures. The program focuses on policy-relevant research, including the relationship between exposure and disease, the cost versus benefit of new standards, and clinical interventions. OEM serves as an objective and unique source of information for the patient and community, policy makers, regulatory bodies, and primary care givers.
The program offers research opportunities in the fields of agricultural health, air pollution health effects, biostatistics, chemical and physical toxicants, dietary factors and disease risk, epidemiology, international occupational health, multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, musculoskeletal injury, neurological epidemiology, neuropyschological sequelae of solvent/pesticide exposure, occupational lead poisoning, occupational lung disease, occupational infectious disease, and the occupational health and safety of animal workers.
Dr. Joel Kaufman
Dr. Joel Kaufman is an international authority on air pollution. He leads the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air) project, which is designed to examine the relationship between air pollution exposures and the progression of cardiovascular disease over time.
Dr. Peter Rabinowitz
Dr. Peter Rabinowitz directs the Center for One Health Research. The Project explores linkages between human, animal, and environmental health in a "One Health" paradigm, including zoonotic infectious diseases at the human-animal interface, animals as "sentinels" of environmental health hazards, and clinical collaboration between human health care providers and veterinarians in a species-spanning approach. A goal of the Project is to serve as an incubator and organizer of research, training, and clinical activities at the University of Washington related to the human-animal-ecosystem interface.
Dr. June Spector
Dr. June Spector specializes in heat-related illness. She is currently conducting a study, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), examining the association between heat exposure and traumatic injury risk in agricultural workers.
Dr. Sverre Vedal
Dr. Sverre Vedal was named the AXA Distinguished Successional Chair in Air Pollution and Health for his work examining air pollution in China. Dr. Vedal spends a portion of each year in China overseeing research projects and participating in collaborative work.