Community mapping in environmental health science aims to empower communities by integrating local knowledge with scientific methods to gather and analyze data. This process enables the discovery of actionable insights, making it a valuable resource for advocacy, strategic planning, and implementing solutions specific to a community’s needs.
For the last 25 years, I told myself I lived in the public health and clinical medicine worlds simultaneously, but that is incorrect. I spent time in each world sequentially in short bursts. In the morning, I’d come to my office in the Public Health School, then I would leave my research team to work a shift in the Pediatric Emergency Room. The physical proximity of the school to the ER was the only actual connection, as these worlds rarely overlapped. It was like stepping through the closet of a C.S. Lewis novel into Narnia.
Environmental health scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have a long history of supporting evidence-based protective policies and practices. For this reason, they are frequently called upon by community organizations and concerned residents for expert guidance on the health effects of environmental exposures and strategies to create safer environments.
Mentored by faculty at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, our environmental health summer internship program empowers youth to explore important topics in the field and create their own advocacy projects to educate and inspire their peers.
Foods are a major source of exposure to both nutritional factors that support good health as well as chemicals that contribute to disease risk. For this reason, dietary exposures are a significant part of the exposome.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology has identified critical periods during early life when lead exposure can significantly diminish children’s antibody responses to routine vaccinations. The research found that increased lead levels in the first three weeks after birth are associated with a notable decrease in anti-tetanus antibody levels, while exposure around the time of birth (one week before to one week after) correlates with reduced anti-diphtheria antibody levels.
In this 45-minute webinar, Maayan Yitshak-Sade, PhD, shares her research on environmental risk factors for stroke, focusing on temperature, greenness, and air pollution. Dr. Yitshak-Sade is an environmental epidemiologist, and she investigates the complex health effects of exposure mixtures and their impacts on morbidity, mortality, and life expectancy across demographic and socioeconomic population groups in the United States.
Science can learn valuable lessons from Kurt Cobain and Doris Lessing, integrating knowledge from different disciplines can lead to new insights and a deeper understanding of biology. Exposomic scientists are now beginning to study autism—a field long dominated by genetics. One would think that studies combining the skills and approaches of these two vastly different fields would abound, since they are studying the same disorder. But surprisingly, such interdisciplinary studies are extremely rare. Why?
Pesticides repel or kill unwanted pests such as insects, rodents, fungi and weeds. All pesticides have the potential to be toxic to humans.
Glyphosate is a widely-used weed killer, exposure to which is associated with a number of health risks. Learn about where glyphosate is found and how to protect your family from exposure.
A healthy school environment that includes access to clean air and water and safe spaces to play is critical to children’s health and well-being.
Researchers found an increase in the risk of ASCVD death, with notable associations with oil combustion sources and coal and biomass burning
Megan K. Horton, PhD MPH works within the ongoing longitudinal birth cohort in Mexico City called PROGRESS. In this webinar, she will discuss cutting edge research linking early life metal exposure reconstructed from baby teeth with structural and function brain changes measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in children and adolescents.
R. Sean Morrison, MD, will share his insights as a leading geriatrician and researcher on how environmental factors, such as air pollution, hearing loss, noise, and temperature extremes may influence the development and progression of age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.
Dr. Kloog discussed how new AI and machine learning models that he has developed are being used to study environmental exposures, like air pollution and temperature extremes, and their impact on public health.
The Mount Sinai Center on Health and Environment Across the LifeSpan (HEALS) and The Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI) invite submissions for pilot grant proposals. This initiative aims to support innovative research at the intersection of environmental health sciences and cancer prevention, control, and treatment.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded two prestigious grants to researchers within the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Department of Environmental Medicine. The Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00) awards are designed to support promising postdoctoral researchers from diverse backgrounds as they transition to independent, tenure-track faculty positions.
As we interpret exposomic data, we should consider the potential flaw of linear thinking in our pathway analyses and the role of physiology. A molecular mechanism is not the only possible story. Everything is connected, and the exposome rarely will act uniformly on all our cells and can’t predict how these disproportionate effects will carry forward to distant tissues. Time makes an effect that arises when we are young evolve to a completely different effect when we are old.
Kicking off Mount Sinai’s events during this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival on June 21, 2024, Dr. Brendan Carr, Mount Sinai Health System CEO, moderated a panel on exposomics and the environmental exposures that shape a person’s health across their lifespan.
Flame Retardants (FRs) are chemicals added to some consumer goods to meet regulatory standards for a product’s ability to resist catching on fire. However, mounting evidence demonstrates that many of these chemicals are not effective at preventing fires. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that human health risks associated with FRs may outweigh their benefits.
