SPH Faculty Members Appointed to State Environmental Panel

School of Public Health associate professors John Adgate and Bruce Alexander have been appointed to the State of Minnesota's Environmental Health Tracking and Biomonitoring Scientific Advisory Panel.

The panel was established as part of legislation passed last year to help health officials make the link between harmful pollution and chronic diseases in Minnesota children and adults. The legislation also puts Minnesota in line to receive federal money for health tracking and bio-monitoring.

"There is a growing body of scientific evidence finding that pollutants found in air, water, and soil cause health effects," says Adgate. "Health tracking and bio-monitoring will help determine where and how environmental pollutants are affecting the health of Minnesotans."

Health tracking directs state agencies to collect data on human exposures to hazardous chemicals and then compare them to data showing where people are suffering from diseases associated with those pollutants. Researchers could then do further analysis to see whether it is just coincidence or if the chemicals are causing the afflictions.

Bio-monitoring sets up a pilot project where researchers will target certain areas and ask for volunteers to be tested for arsenic, mercury, perfluorochemicals (PFCs), or other chemicals in their bodies. As members of the scientific advisory panel, Adgate and Alexander will help craft recommendations to the commissioner of health on how to proceed with monitoring and prevention efforts.

"This is an exciting first step in examining the link between environmental pollutants and disease in Minnesota," says Adgate. "It's still a pilot, but getting data from local populations will help decision-making and may allow for more effective prevention efforts down the road."