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Community Engagement Core Hosts Environmental Journalism Summit

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The Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC) hosted more than 40 journalists, researchers, and students on March 5, 2019, to discuss challenges and opportunities in the field of science communication and environmental reporting. The summit, held at Drake Community Library in Grinnell, Iowa, aimed to increase journalists’ interest in reporting about environmental issues, as well as to help researchers better communicate effectively to general audiences.

Part of the mission of the EHSRC Community Engagement Core is to improve environmental health literacy. Bringing together journalists with environmental health researchers is one way to increase the public access to science. For this event, the EHSRC collaborated with IowaWatch, the UI School of Journalism and Communications, the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC), and the Center for Prairie Studies at Grinnell College.

Speakers included journalists Amy Mayer from Iowa Public Radio and Lyle Muller from IowaWatch along with University of Iowa faculty and researchers from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Colleges of Engineering, Medicine, and Public Health. Chris Martin from the Department of Communication Studies and Digital Journalism at the University of Northern Iowa and his daughter, a student journalist from the award-winning Cedar Falls High School newspaper, The Tiger Hi-Line, gave a presentation about engaging high school student journalists in environmental reporting.

Journalists from media outlets across the state participated, including the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, The Des Moines Register, Estherville News, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and Iowa Public Radio. Numerous students were in attendance as well with representation from the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, Grinnell College, and Muscatine Community College.

The event included panel discussions about science in the media and nitrates in water, hands-on activities about environmental storytelling, and a brainstorming session to generate environmental topics for future reporting. Darrin Thompson, a PhD candidate in occupational and environmental health, discussed his research on neonicotinoids, and Peter Thorne, professor and head of occupational and environmental health and director of the EHSRC, gave a presentation about his experiences as chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board. Participants also engaged in a group literature discussion to comment on real stories that have been published recently in Iowa.

This story is also published on the College of Public Health Website

 

You can view 5 of the sessions from the Environmental Journalism Summit. View them here

EHSRC Member Dr. Gregory LeFevre Wins NSF CAREER Award

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Congratulations to Dr. Gregory LeFevre for winning the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award.  Dr. LeFevre is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a researcher a the IIHR- Hydroscience & Engineering Research Center.

The $500,000 project is titled “Toward Resilient Stormwater Quality Practices: Biotransformation for Sustained Removal of Emerging Contaminants” and it will be funded through 2024.

For more about this award, view the write up on the University of Iowa website and the project abstract.

 

Photo courtesy of UI College of Engineering

Spring 2019 Human Toxicology and EHSRC Research Seminar Topics

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HUMAN TOXICOLOGY AND EHSRC  RESEARCH SEMINAR (TOX:7180) FOR SPRING 2019

Time: Friday 10:45 am

Location: 283 EMRB

January 25 – Are mitochondria bystanders in malignant brain tumor?

Corinne E. Griguer, PhD

Free Radical & Radiation Biology Program, Department of Radiation-Oncology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa

 

February 1 – Protecting the organelle at the expense of the organ? ER stress in fatty liver diease

Thomas Rutkowksi, PhD

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa

February 8 –   Emerging options in publishing: Megajournals, micropublications, preprint servers, publishing data sets, ‘negative’ results, etc.

Mirko von Elstermann

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences

 

February 15–   Regulation of outer membrane vesicle-induced cytotoxicity by LPS-recognition proteins

Jason H. Barker, MD

Department of Internal Medicine – Infectious Diseases, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa

 

February 22 – Enhancing efficacy of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy for neuroendocrine tumors

Dongyoul Lee

IDGP in Human Toxicology, University of Iowa

 

March 1-  Early Life Pesticide Exposure: Behavioral and Neuroanatomical Outcomes

Jill L. Silverman, PhD

MIND Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine

 

March 8 –  Endocrine disruptor effects during early development on the structure of the prefrontal cortex and cognitive behavior

Janice M Juraska, PhD

Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience and Beckman Institute affiliate, University of Illinois

 

March 10-14 – 58th Annual Meeting and ToxExpo, Baltimore, Maryland

 

March 17-24 –   Spring Break

 

March 29  –Weather and Risk of Urinary Tract Infections and Pneumonia

Jacob E. Simmering, PhD

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa

 

April 5 – Prevalence of uranium series radionuclides in iowa groundwater resources

Dustin May

IDGP in Human Toxicology, University of Iowa

 

April 12 – TBN

Shailendra Giri, PhD

Department of Neurology, Henry Ford Hospital

 

April 19 – Endocrine disrupting chemicals: a costly public health threat with opportunities for policy prevention

Leonardo Trasande, MD

Division of Environmental Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics and Environmental Medicine & Population Health, NYU School of Medicine

 

April 26 – Investigation of the anti-tumor responses of Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) agonists combined with EGFR targeted therapy and immunotherapy in head and neck  squamous cell carcinomas

Yinwen Cheng

IDGP in Human Toxicology, University of Iowa

 

May 3rd – Organosulfates: A missing link between air pollution and Alzheimer’s disease?

Elizabeth Stone, PhD

Department of Chemistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The University of Iowa

Pamela J. Lein, PhD

Department of Molecular Biosciences, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

 

Please contact Hans-Joachim Lehmler (at 335-4981 or hans-joachim-lehmler@uiowa.edu) for more information.

Challenges to Providing Safe Drinking Water in the Midwest – A Symposium

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On September 21-22, 2017, a statewide symposium was held at Drake University in Des Moines to examine various impediments to providing safe drinking water in the Midwest.  The symposium was co-sponsored by several University of Iowa centers, including the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC), Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC), Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER), and the UI Public Policy Center.  Partnering organizations included the University of Northern Iowa, Drake University, The Iowa Public Health Association, Iowa League of Cities, the Iowa Association of Water Agencies, the Iowa Environmental Council and the Central Iowa Drinking Water Commission.

Over the course of a day and a half, 13 speakers delivered presentations and participated in panel discussion on subjects such as the Health Impacts of Nitrate in Drinking Water, New Technologies and Approaches for Mitigating Unregulated Contaminants in Drinking Water, Health Impacts from Drinking Water Treatment, New and Emerging Threats, Ordering our Priorities, and Communicating with the Public on Drinking Water Issues.

Approximately 150 people attended the symposium, including water regulators, researchers, state legislators, students, educators, and environmental and public health representatives from across Iowa.

Speakers represented several universities, both in Iowa and nationwide, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the press, and various water and environmental organizations and agencies.