Environmental Health seminar Series: The burden and impacts of heavy metal exposures in mid and low income countries

Speaker: Birgit Claus Henn, MPH, SD, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health Summary: For thousands of years, humans have been using heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Although adverse health effects have been known to be associated with exposure to some metals for a long time, exposure to these metals continues. In some areas of the world and for certain subpopulations, exposure is increasing. Furthermore, little is known about the health effects of combinations of metals, which is a realistic exposure scenario. This seminar will explore the impact of metal exposures in low- and middle-income countries, using two pediatric populations as examples. Birgit Claus Henn is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the BU School of Public Health. Her research focuses on exposure to toxic metals and their impact on child development. She has examined associations between metals exposure and neurodevelopment in multiple pediatric cohorts worldwide, spanning critical periods of development from prenatal exposure through late childhood. Dr. Claus Henn is currently the PI of an NIEHS Career Development Award to utilize novel statistical approaches for analyzing chemical mixtures data in order to understand neurodevelopmental effects of multiple metals. Birgit received her MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, and her SD from Harvard Chan School of Public Health in 2010. No registration needed