2008 An Environmental Crossroads

site

people

Global warming clouds our future. Pollution degrades our air, soil and water. Environmental toxins compromise the health of our children. Misuse threatens the sustainability of our forests, fisheries, wetlands and coasts, and the health of species that live there.

But there is reason for hope.

Through sound science and policy research, we're finding answers to these problems. Airborne lead and acid rain have been dramatically reduced. Industrial water pollution has decreased. Habitats are being preserved.

Faculty members from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University are part of the effort to help find these answers and establish new environmental practices and policies to safeguard our natural resources for generations to come.

To contact our experts or learn more about what we're doing in states across the nation, click on the state you're interested in.

Environmental Toxins & Public Health
Alaska ranks first in the nation for toxic chemical releases into the environment. In 2002, nearly 550 million pounds of toxic chemicals – most of them zinc or lead compounds – were released. Of these, about 480 million came from mining operations in the DeLong Mountains of Northwest Arctic County. Contamination from the state’s six active Superfund cleanup sites also is a concern. Five of the sites are located on military bases and three have contaminated or threatened drinking water sources in Anchorage and Fairbanks North Star counties.

Richard Di Giulio heads the Duke Superfund Basic Research Center where he studies the toxicology of certain Superfund chemicals that can leach into surface and groundwater and pose environmental and human health risks.
tel: (919) 613-8024: e: richd@duke.edu

Research focus: Environmental toxicology. Freshwater and estuarine pollution. Cancer biology. Special emphasis of his work is the elucidation of mechanisms of exposure and toxicity in humans and ecosystems to particular Superfund chemicals selected based upon their potential significance with respect to reproductive and developmental effects.

Jonathan Freedman studies environmental toxicology, especially how organisms respond when they are exposed to toxic concentrations of transition metals, and the mechanisms of toxin-related disease, developmental abnormalities and carcinogenesis.
tel: (919) 613-8037: e: jonf@duke.edu

Research focus: Molecular biology, cell biology and molecular toxicology. Toxicogenomics, the relationship between toxicant exposure and gene expression.

The current focus of Freedman’s research is directed toward understanding how cadmium induces the expression of dozens of different genes, which encode proteins with functions ranging from repairing intracellular damage to DNA, lipids and proteins to activating signal transduction cascades. Results from this research will help elucidate (a) mechanisms of transition metal induced disease, developmental abnormalities and carcinogenesis and (b) how organisms adapt to increasingly toxic environments. A second area of his research focuses on understanding the regulatory mechanism of metallothionein gene transcription.

David Hinton studies the causes and effects of environmental contaminants on ecosystem health, particularly on fish. He has bred a strain of guppy-like Medaka fish that are highly sensitive to contaminants and can be used as sentinels to detect water quality problems in urban drinking water.
tel: (919) 613-8038: e: dhinton@duke.edu

Research focus: Mechanistic and integrative understanding of the manner in which environmental contaminants exert their effects. Pathobiology and toxiopathology of persistent environmental contaminants in fishes. Deciphering deleterious effects and establishing causal linkages.

Some of Hinton’s specially bred Medaka sentinel fish have been sent to Orange County, Calif., where they are being use to evaluate the safety of its drinking water. Any hints of lesions on or in their tiny bodies may hint of unseen toxic agents.

Marie Lynn Miranda uses GIS technology to map neighborhoods and determine children’s exposure risk to lead, allergens, pesticides and industrial toxins.
tel: (919) 613-8023: e: mmiranda@duke.edu

Research Focus: Children’s environmental health. Environmental economics and justice. Spatial modeling and geographic information systems. Ecotoxicology.

As director of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, Miranda works with 11 North Carolina county health departments to create data-rich, multi-layered GIS maps that pinpoint environmental health risks on a house-by-house basis. This helps officials identify and prevent problems, such as lead poisoning, before children become ill. Based on its success in North Carolina, Miranda hopes her initiative can become a national model.

“Right now, in most counties we’re unintentionally using children as canaries in the coal mine. We wait for them to get sick and then we go into their daily environments to figure out what caused it,” Miranda says. “What we should be doing is using technology to map risk factors and develop preventive programs that identify hazards, so we can clean them up before kids get sick.”

Wayne Thomann is an expert on indoor air quality.
tel: (919) 684-6320 e: thoma010@mc.duke.edu

Research focus: Thomann hold joint appointments at the Nicholas School and the Duke University Medical Center. His research centers on indoor air quality. He is an authority on microbial contaminants in indoor environments focusing on the analysis, control and regulation of mold growth within buildings.

He is also an expert on hazardous waste management, environmental health and safety, and children’s environmental health.