Irva Hertz-Picciotto

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Irva Hertz-Picciotto (born c. 1948), is an environmental epidemiologist best known for her studies of autism. She is Professor and Chief of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health in the Department of Public Health Sciences, at the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis). [1] In addition, she is on the Research Faculty of the MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute at UC-Davis; [2] the Deputy Director of the UC-Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health; [3] and on the faculty of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health of the Universities of California at Berkeley, Davis, and San Francisco. [4] Hertz-Picciotto serves on the advisory board of the anti-toxic chemical NGO Healthy Child, Healthy World. [5]

Contents

Biography

Hertz-Picciotto received four degrees from the University of California at Berkeley: a B.A. in Mathematics in 1970, an M.P.H. in Epidemiology in 1984, a M.A. in Biostatistics in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 1989. [6] She was on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 12 years before joining UC-Davis. [7]

She has published over 170 scientific articles, [8] including:

Selected research projects

Current research projects for which Hertz-Picciotto is principal investigator include:

Hertz-Picciotto also collaborates on the following studies, among others:

Selected awards, recognition, and service

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemiology</span> Study of health and disease within a population

Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution, patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population.

The science of epidemiology has matured significantly from the times of Hippocrates, Semmelweis and John Snow. The techniques for gathering and analyzing epidemiological data vary depending on the type of disease being monitored but each study will have overarching similarities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passive smoking</span> Inhalation of tobacco smoke by persons other than the intended active smoker

Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called passive smoke, secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by individuals other than the active smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmosphere as an aerosol pollutant, which leads to its inhalation by nearby bystanders within the same environment. Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke causes many of the same diseases caused by active smoking, although to a lower prevalence due to the reduced concentration of smoke that enters the airway.

An environmental factor, ecological factor or eco factor is any factor, abiotic or biotic, that influences living organisms. Abiotic factors include ambient temperature, amount of sunlight, air, soil, water and pH of the water soil in which an organism lives. Biotic factors would include the availability of food organisms and the presence of biological specificity, competitors, predators, and parasites.

The UC Davis MIND Institute is a research and treatment center affiliated with the University of California, Davis, with facilities located on the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento, California. The institute is a consortium of scientists, educators, physicians and parents dedicated to researching the causes of and treatments for autism spectrum disorders, fragile X syndrome, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The director of the MIND institute is Dr. Leonard Abbeduto.

Thiomersal is a mercury compound which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Anti-vaccination activists promoting the incorrect claim that vaccination causes autism have asserted that the mercury in thiomersal is the cause. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The idea that thiomersal in vaccines might have detrimental effects originated with anti-vaccination activists and was sustained by them and especially through the action of plaintiffs' lawyers.

Spatial epidemiology is a subfield of epidemiology focused on the study of the spatial distribution of health outcomes; it is closely related to health geography.

The epidemiology of autism is the study of the incidence and distribution of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A 2022 systematic review of global prevalence of autism spectrum disorders found a median prevalence of 1% in children in studies published from 2012 to 2021, with a trend of increasing prevalence over time. However, the study's 1% figure may reflect an underestimate of prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

Exposure science is the study of the contact between humans and harmful agents within their environment – whether it be chemical, physical, biological, behavioural or mental stressors – with the aim of identifying the causes and preventions of the adverse health effects they result in. This can include exposure within the home, workplace, outdoors or any other environment an individual may encounter. The term 'exposure' is the umbrella term for many different types, ranging from ultraviolet exposure, exposure to the chemicals in the food we eat, to exposure to long working hours being the occupational factor most attributable to the burden of disease.

Psychiatric epidemiology is a field which studies the causes (etiology) of mental disorders in society, as well as conceptualization and prevalence of mental illness. It is a subfield of the more general epidemiology. It has roots in sociological studies of the early 20th century. However, while sociological exposures are still widely studied in psychiatric epidemiology, the field has since expanded to the study of a wide area of environmental risk factors, such as major life events, as well as genetic exposures. Increasingly neuroscientific techniques like MRI are used to explore the mechanisms behind how exposures to risk factors may impact psychological problems and explore the neuroanatomical substrate underlying psychiatric disorders.

Mady Hornig is an American psychiatrist and an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. A physician-scientist, her research involves clinical, epidemiological, and animal model research on autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. She directs the clinical core of an international investigation of the role of Borna disease virus in human mental illness and participates as a key investigator for the Autism Birth Cohort (ABC) project, a large prospective epidemiological study, based in Norway, that is identifying how genes and timing interact with environmental agents preceding the onset of autism spectrum diagnoses. In 2006, she was appointed as guest professor at the school of basic medical science of Beijing University in Beijing, China.

Environmental epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology concerned with determining how environmental exposures impact human health. This field seeks to understand how various external risk factors may predispose to or protect against disease, illness, injury, developmental abnormalities, or death. These factors may be naturally occurring or may be introduced into environments where people live, work, and play.

Molecular epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology and medical science that focuses on the contribution of potential genetic and environmental risk factors, identified at the molecular level, to the etiology, distribution and prevention of disease within families and across populations. This field has emerged from the integration of molecular biology into traditional epidemiological research. Molecular epidemiology improves our understanding of the pathogenesis of disease by identifying specific pathways, molecules and genes that influence the risk of developing disease. More broadly, it seeks to establish understanding of how the interactions between genetic traits and environmental exposures result in disease.

C677T or rs1801133 is a genetic variation—a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)—in the MTHFR gene.

David A. Savitz is a professor of Community Health in the Epidemiology Section of the Program in Public Health, Vice President for Research, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at The Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Associate Director for Perinatal Research in The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital, both in Providence, Rhode Island. Savitz is the author of Interpreting epidemiologic evidence: strategies for study design and analysis (ISBN 0-19-510840-X) and more than 275 peer-reviewed articles. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2007.

The International Meeting for Autism Research, or IMFAR for short, is an annual meeting held each spring by the International Society for Autism Research. The 2019 meeting was held in Montreal. The 2015 meeting was in Salt Lake City. The 2014 meeting was held in Atlanta from May 14 to 17. In 2013, IMFAR was held in San Sebastian, Spain.

Paul Ashwood is an associate professor of immunology at the MIND Institute at the University of California Davis. His lab conducts research regarding the potential role of immune system disorders in autism, as well as other neurodevelopmental disorders such as Fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia and mood disorders.

The health of a mother directly affects the fetus during pregnancy. High levels of vehicle pollution where pregnant women reside can have adverse health effects on fetuses.

Craig J. Newschaffer is the founding director of Drexel University's AJ Drexel Autism Institute, as well as a professor of epidemiology at the Drexel University School of Public Health and a professor of psychology at Drexel University College of Medicine.

The CHARGE study, which stands for Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment, was launched in 2003 by researchers at the MIND Institute. It describes its goal as to research the role of gene-environment interactions in influencing autism risk. Scientists involved in the research include Irva Hertz-Picciotto, who is the study's principal investigator. The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Over 1,000 families have participated in the study. The children in the study are divided into three groups: children with autism, children with developmental delay, and children chosen at random from the general population.

References

  1. ↑ Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis. Faculty. Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  2. ↑ UC Davis MIND Institute. Research faculty. Archived 2010-10-25 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  3. ↑ UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Center for Children's Environmental Health home page. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  4. ↑ Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, PhD, MPH. Retrieved 2010 October 16.
  5. ↑ Healthy Child, Healthy World. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, board member. Retrieved 2014 June 18.
  6. ↑ "Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., M.P.H. (curriculum vitae)" (PDF). Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved 2010-10-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  7. ↑ UC Davis Health System. Irva Hertz-Picciotto. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  8. ↑ U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed search results for "Hertz-Picciotto I [Author]". Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  9. ↑ Hertz-Picciotto I, Delwiche L. The rise in autism and the role of age at diagnosis. Epidemiology. 2009 Jan;20(1):84-90. PMID   19234401
  10. ↑ Cone M. Autism epidemic not caused by shifts in diagnoses; environmental factors likely. Environmental Health News 2009 January 9. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  11. ↑ Van Meter KC, Christiansen LE, Delwiche LD, Azari R, Carpenter TE, Hertz-Picciotto I. Geographic distribution of autism in California: a retrospective birth cohort analysis. [ permanent dead link ] Autism Res. 2010 Feb;3(1):19-29. PMID   20049980
  12. ↑ Hamilton J. Autism 'clusters' linked to parents' education. National Public Radio News 2010 January 6. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  13. ↑ Shelton JF, Tancredi DJ, Hertz-Picciotto I. Independent and dependent contributions of advanced maternal and paternal ages to autism risk. Autism Res. 2010 Feb;3(1):30-9.
  14. ↑ Putting off motherhood increases risk of autistic child: researchers. The Telegraph 2010 Feb 9. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  15. ↑ MIND Institute. CHARGE study homepage. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  16. ↑ MIND Institute. MARBLES study homepage. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  17. ↑ Griffith D. Area's kids in major study - county children, mothers to be enlisted for nationwide look at environmental effects on health. Sacramento Bee 2007 October 5.
  18. ↑ Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI). Meet the EARLI investigators of northern California-UC Davis. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  19. ↑ Society for Epidemiologic Research. About us. Archived 2010-01-30 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  20. ↑ Delta Omega: Honorary Society in Public Health. Membership list - H. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  21. ↑ Institute of Medicine, Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides. Veterans and Agent Orange: update 2000. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001. ISBN   0-309-07552-1
  22. ↑ UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. McGavran Award: past recipients. Archived 2010-06-15 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  23. ↑ National Associates of the National Academies. The National Associates program. 2008 September. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  24. ↑ International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. Past Officers and Councilors. Updated 2010 January 12. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  25. ↑ Society for Epidemiologic Research. SER historical data - presidents and executive board members. Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  26. ↑ National Academies. Project Information. Project Title: Breast Cancer and the Environment: The Scientific Evidence, Research Methodology, and Future Directions. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  27. ↑ Environmental Health. Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto. Editorial Board. Archived 2010-10-30 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  28. ↑ Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto. Editorial Board. Archived 2011-07-10 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010 October 15.
  29. ↑ California Air Resources Board Research Screening Committee. 2010 October 7. Retrieved 2010 October 15.
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