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Environmental Health
Background:
Jim Walker has conducted and
published a number of environmental chamber studies. All of this work
has included environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Objectives have
included: i) comparison of conventional and tobacco-heating cigarettes
in terms of impact of ETS on non-smokers; ii) evaluating biological
impact of workday-length exposures to sidestream smoke (surrogate for
true ETS),; iii) determining dose-response functions for various
endpoints; iv) evaluating biomarkers of ETS exposure; v) investigating
relationships between psychophysiological and perceptual endpoints; vi)
estimating the ETS thresholds for various responses/impacts; vii)
comparing the pattern of response seen with ETS to those elicited by a
pure compound; and viii) investigating the role of the olfactory nerve
in mediating short- term response to ETS and a single compound.
Jim supervised, while director of the Sensory Research Institute at the
Florida State University, the design, construction, testing and use of
an innovative (and relatively simple and inexpensive) environmental
chamber (presentations, publications).
Note: Consulting in environmental Health, would normally involve
projects or issues in which the aim is to better understand how and why
humans respond/are impacted when they are exposed for at least a few
minutes, in a "whole-body" manner, to chemically simple or
complex stimuli.
Sample
(hypothetical) Projects/Issues:
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Our company is in the
process of developing a product designed to lessen or remove
perceived malodors in the kitchen or bathroom. We seek advice in: a)
ways to assess progress as the product is being developed; b)
formulating and substantiating claims; and c) assessing the
attributes and claims of competitive formulations.
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Our organization
represents a number of companies that produce high production volume
chemicals for the worldwide market. H, S & E standards vary from
market to market and we seek assistance in designing studies that
will yield valid characterizations of various chemicals (singly
and/or in combination) for use in meeting regulations in all market
countries.
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My company markets a
process that includes one or more substances recently associated
with adverse long-and/or short-term health effects in humans
(especially susceptible groups) . We need to reformulate and conduct
meaningful laboratory tests to demonstrate that we have solved the
problem. We require assistance in optimizing the values of these
tests.
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Our car company knows that
it has reduced emissions of selected VOCs from interior components
but needs advice on how to assess the degree to which sensory impact
is lessened over the duration of a typical cross-town car ride.
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Our fragrance has received
a number of complaints from individuals (especially with those with
COPD and IEI), and the theme of these is that our products cause,
even when not strong enough to be perceived, adverse affects such as
headaches, dizziness and difficulty concentrating. We seek advice as
to what kind of studies will maximally inform us as to whether these
complaints have merit and deciding what laboratory is best-qualified
to design, conduct, present, publish and defend the research.
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My company/organization is
in danger of being sued for adversely affecting, by its
environmental emissions, the 1.5 million individuals that live in a
three mile radius of one of our plants (situated within a somewhat
industrialized area). We can document our emissions in real-time
over the past few years but seek advice as to how to translate these
into likely effects in humans from various demographic groups.
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My company wishes to
establish in-house capability to conduct first-rate environmental
chamber research, with the possibility of also taking on contract
research for other companies. We are in need of advice in all
aspects of this planned endeavor.
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An R&D group at my
company realizes it will likely succeed with a major project
only if it is able to form and sustain truly collaborative research
alliances with university laboratories. We seek advice and
assistance in locating and evaluating "outside"
laboratories and ensuring that a robust environment of trust and
cooperation is established and maintained throughout the project.
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