Hospital care costs are out of control. Price caps can help.
By Andy Ryan and Roslyn Murray of Brown University
Everything from plastics to cosmetics leach chemicals into your home. Here’s how to purge it.
Disciplines:
Public Health & Social SciencesDr. Braun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. He was formerly a school nurse in Milwaukee, WI before receiving his master's and doctoral degrees in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He completed postdoctoral training in environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health.
For 15 years, Dr. Braun has been committed to identifying modifiable risk factors of pediatric diseases in order to improve public health. Working with an interdisciplinary team that includes epidemiologists, biostatisticians, exposure scientists, physicians, and engineers, he studies the health effects of environmental pollutant exposures before conception and during gestation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.
Dr. Braun’s research foci includes endocrine disrupting chemicals, toxic metals, obesity, cardiometabolic health, and pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders. His research group applies advanced biostatistical techniques to longitudinal cohort studies in order to quantify the health effects of chemical mixtures and identify periods of heightened susceptibility to chemical exposures. Moreover, Dr. Braun is using untargeted metabolomics and DNA methylation to understand biological pathways underlying the potential effect of chemical exposures.
Dr. Braun and his research team use three prospective cohort studies in North America (HOME, MIREC, and PEACE Studies) to conduct these studies. These cohorts have been following children since before conception or during pregnancy; follow-up now continues as children transition into adolescence.
By Joseph Braun
It’s safe to say we all have been spending more time indoors this past year. With coronavirus in the air, “going out” is something that requires planning and caution. Most people are, justifiably, focused on the dangers lurking in the grocery store and at school. But everyday chemicals inside the home pose their own invisible threat to families’ health.
Toxic chemicals are surprisingly common in the home. Seventy-four percent of plastics in food packaging and storage containers have toxic substances like bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates, according to a study from the American Chemical Society. These plastics are continuously shedding chemicals into the food your family eats. Phthalates are also found in everything from flooring to children’s clothing to the dust in our homes.
These chemicals affect the health of both adults and children, and even small doses may be enough to disrupt a child’s development. Numerous studies, including my own, have linked childhood exposure to phthalates and BPA with decreased IQ, behavior problems, obesity, food allergies, eczema, asthma, and respiratory infections. My research at the Brown University School of Public Health also found that early childhood exposure to triclosan, an antimicrobial chemical common in products like cosmetics, is associated with attention problems and hyperactivity in school-aged children.
Read the full article online at Fatherly.
This article was produced by Footnote in partnership with Brown University School of Public Health.
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