Environmental Exposures in Underserved Southwest Populations

Our Goal

Is to partner with Indigenous, Latinx, rural, and other at-risk communities in the Southwest to determine the contribution of chemical and other environmental exposures to health inequities, and to support efforts to eliminate these disparities.

Our Focus

Is on exposures in arid environments, including but not limited to exposure to groundwater contaminants such as arsenic and inhalation exposures to dust caused by low humidity and high winds.
multiple small image tiles representing the types of research found in the SWEHSC Environmental Exposures in Underserved Southwest Populations research focus group

Highlights from Our Research

Collecting tree cores near established air monitors in Arizona and evaluating how closely annual metals concentrations in the tree rings predicted the EPA's standard of annual monitored ambient metals concentrations. While also exploring a new analytical laser technique to measure time series of metals within tree rings.

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Dr. Beamer’s team developed a bilingual data and sample collection and management tools and infrastructure for launching our clinical trial to reduce volatile organic chemical exposures in small auto shops and beauty salons.

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Assessing short-term exposures and risk perceptions on the Navajo Nation following the catastrophic Gold King Mine spill in 2015.

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Analyzing epigenomic changes resulting from exposures to smoke in firefighters in order to provided expertise in examining the effects of arsenic exposure on the lung microbiome.

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Evaluating the effects of dietary components of inorganic arsenic (iAs) intake on serum MMP-9 concentration at differing levels of tap water As and the resulting health effects on both sides of the US-Mexico Border.

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A characterization of the immune profiles of Amish and Hutterite schoolchildren. The use of mouse models of asthma to study the effect of the environment on airway responses and to create a mechanistic framework for the interpretation of the observations in humans.

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