FORWARD Symposium
Session: Buildings and Human Health: Lead and Beyond
How do chemicals and contaminants in the built environment impact health? From lead to VOCs to CO2, a wide range of chemicals have been shown to affect human health. This session brings together two professors in public health and a research fellow at a local architecture firm to discuss some of the concerns and start a conversation about how green building professionals may best respond to what’s known and what isn’t.Are “green” buildings healthy buildings? The first presenter will explore the scientific data and latest research on the intersection of green and healthy housing. The second presentation will focus on lead exposures from drinking water and present preliminary data from a study of lead in New Orleans drinking water. The third presentation will review findings linking cognitive function to indoor air quality and discuss some of the tools and investigations that one architecture firm has advanced to better address concerns about health and buildings.
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss the state of knowledge about the impact of indoor air quality on respiratory health with an emphasis on vulnerable subpopulations.
- Describe the challenges to conducting research on residential-based hazards and human health.
- Analyze the latest research on lead exposures from drinking water and the limitations with current regulations and prevailing exposure prevention guidelines.
- Discuss recent research about the impacts of indoor air quality on cognitive function and review tools that facilitate architects’ materials selections.
Dr. Felicia Rabito Bio
Felicia Rabito is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Her area of expertise is in Environmental Epidemiology and Dr. Rabito’s research area is children’s environmental health and the contextual effects of the home and neighborhood environment on respiratory health and lead exposure. She is currently investigating the impact of green housing on chemical and biologic exposures and morbidity in asthmatic children and the effect of fetal lead exposure on infant neurocognitive development.
Adrienne Katner Bio
Adrienne Katner is an Assistant Professor at LSU Health Science Center’s School of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Program. Prior to that she was an environmental health scientist with Louisiana Office of Public Health’s Section of Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology Program. She has a broad background in public health, with specific training in exposure and risk assessment; and environmental health policy and regulations. Her current research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to reduce lead exposures from drinking water.
Marina Michael Bio
Marina Michael is the current Research Fellow at Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. Following receipt of her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia in the spring of 2015, Marina has spent the last year exploring the many ways that the built environment impacts human health. Investigations have ranged in scale from material selections and indoor air quality to urban walkability.