EHP: The Researcher's Perspective

Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is a controversial practice used in natural-gas drilling. Fracking makes it much more feasible to free the vast reserves of natural gas locked underground, but the practice comes with concerns that the natural gas boom is proceeding too fast, before we understand the human health impacts. Discussions about fracking and community health typically involve questions about methane contamination of drinking water wells around drill sites. In this podcast, host Ashley Ahearn talks with Robert B. Jackson about another fracking-related water concern: the millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater generated by the process. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

In our daily lives we're rarely exposed to just one chemical at a time. Metals, for example, are ubiquitous in the environment, and most of us are exposed to different combinations of metals each day through air, water, and food. Simultaneous exposures to different metals may have synergistic effects in children, whose developing brains are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects from these potentially neurotoxic agents. In this podcast host Ashley Ahearn discusses the neurodevelopmental effects of metals mixtures with researcher Robert O. Wright. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

With more than 1 billion people estimated to not have enough to eat, food security is a pervasive problem. An estimated one-third of the global burden of disease afflicting children under the age of 5 is caused by undernutrition. Climate change is anticipated to reduce cereal yields, further threatening food security and potentially increasing child undernutrition. In this podcast, host Ashley Ahearn discusses the connection between climate change and undernutrition with researcher Sari Kovats. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

Cell phones have become an integral part of many people’s lives. But could our constant contact with these devices be affecting our health? That question has been the subject of international debate and intense study in recent years. In this podcast, David Savitz of Brown University discusses evidence from epidemiologic studies of cell phone safety with host Ashley Ahearn. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

Studies are showing a trend of girls developing breasts and going through puberty earlier than they did in years past. Now researchers are investigating the role environmental exposures may play in this trend and the potential long-term health effects of earlier development. In this podcast, host Ashley Ahearn discusses with researcher Suzanne Fenton how research on environmental exposures and mammary gland development in rodents might be used to assess risks for humans. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

Climate change is not just a problem for rivers and reservoirs that are running dry, or forests and grasslands that are seeing an increased incidence of wildfire, or Arctic wildlife stressed by rapidly changing ecosystems. It’s a problem for human health, too, as John Balbus discusses with host Ashley Ahearn. It can be tricky to attribute specific health effects to climate change, which reflects trends in the weather averaged over decades. But short-term weather fluctuations are known to alter the risk of several diseases. As short-term fluctuations become long-term patterns, health effects also may adopt new patterns. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

In the 2007 news feature "Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry," EHP explored the environmental and occupational health implications of producing cheap—indeed, virtually disposable—clothing. This story has gone on to become the journal’s most popular article of all time. Author Luz Claudio tells host Ashley Ahearn about the inspiration for "Waste Couture," why this story has captured so much attention, and changes she has seen in fashion since its publication. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 devastated entire swaths of the Japanese coastline and killed thousands of people. Much of the attention following the disaster has focused on radiation exposures from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Now public health officials are beginning to assess another potential source of disaster-related exposures: hazardous chemicals that may have been released when major industrial centers along Japan’s east coast were damaged or destroyed. In this podcast, journalists Lizzie Grossman and Winnie Bird talk with host Ashley Ahearn about their EHP feature story on the potential chemical contamination following the Tohoku disaster. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

Air pollution in China, one of the world’s oldest civilizations, reflects a combination of traditional and modern-day factors. Severe air pollution in Chinese cities is the result of rapid industrialization, urbanization, and growth in vehicle use. At the same time, traditional indoor burning of solid fuels such as coal and dung presents acute, severe exposures to pollutants including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, arsenic, and mercury. In this podcast, Junfeng (Jim) Zhang tells host Ashley Ahearn about some of the factors that make air pollution a significant problem in China. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.

Biomonitoring studies reveal what we've been exposed to, but the significance of these exposures is not always clear—and when the participants in such studies are children or pregnant women, this lack of certainty can be especially unnerving. Reporting body burden findings back to study participants and to the general public therefore poses major ethical and logistical dilemmas, as Tracey Woodruff and Rachel Morello-Frosch discuss with host Ashley Ahearn. Visit the podcast webpage to download a full transcript of this podcast.