Professor Named Associate Editor of Environmental Health Journal.

Ann Aschengrau, a professor of epidemiology who has researched environmental pollution and the risk of disease for the past 25 years, has been named an associate editor of the journal Environmental Health.

Aschengrau has led investigations on the relationship between drinking water contaminants and abnormal pregnancy outcomes, neurological disorders, and cancer, and on the impact of lead hazard reduction measures among inner-city children. She is currently the principal investigator of a case-control study examining the risk of birth defects following prenatal exposure to tetrachloroethylene-contaminated drinking water.

The study is identifying cases of oral clefts, neural tube defects, and cardiac defects and unaffected controls using vital records from Massachusetts and Rhode Island from 1969 to 1990. Tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, contaminated public drinking water supplies in more than 100 cities and towns when the chemical leached from the vinyl linings of water distribution pipes. Aschengrau and colleagues have published findings showing an increased risk of stillbirth and other complications in exposed pregnant women on Cape Cod.

In 2003, Aschengrau published her first book, Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health, with coauthor George R. Seage III, professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Now in its third edition, the book has been used in more than 100 schools across the United States.

Aschengrau has served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Gulf War and Health, as a consultant to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, and as a jury member for the annual John Heinz Memorial Award honoring an individual whose work has made a significant impact on the environment.

Environmental Health, an open access, peer-reviewed journal, serves the public health community and scientists working on matters of public health interest pertaining to the environment.