Pittsburgh Graduate School Creates Biostatistics/Epidemiology Center
The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health announced Tuesday that it has established a new Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology that will focus on long-term health effects on workers in industries such as jet engine manufacturing and pharmaceutical production and also in workplace exposures to formaldehyde and other substances. Directed by Gary M. Marsh, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics at the school, the center also will investigate health outcomes in communities that have beeen exposed to industrial pollutants or hazardous waste.
Marsh's online CV states that he has investigated long-term health effects of exposure to agents such as man-made fibers, acrylamide, arsenic, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The center will be based on a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach and will build on the school's success in developing applying biostatistical methods to the study of workplace exposures.
"The more we can learn about occupational health risks, the better we can prevent and treat disease," said Marsh, whose research has been published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Annals of Epidemiology, and Industrial Health, among others.
"The COBE will allow us to more effectively integrate the fields of biostatistics, epidemiology, industrial hygiene, and occupational health to conduct research and translate results directly into public health practice," Marsh added. COBE will reside within the school's Department of Biostatistics. Deputy directors of the center are Ada O. Youk, Ph.D., and Jeanine M. Buchanich, Ph.D., who are faculty members in the department. For more information on COBE, visit http://cobe.biostat.pitt.edu/.