partner profile
Patrick Breysse
by Nancy Maddox, MPH, writer
Patrick Breysse, PhD, CIH—a leader in the fields of environmental health and exposure
assessment—assumed the directorship of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health
(NCEH) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in late 2014. Before
that, the prolific researcher spent nearly 30 years on the faculty of The Johns Hopkins University
(JHU), studying issues linked to adverse environmental exposures. The Seattle native is a
board certified industrial hygienist. His last positions at JHU—where he also earned his PhD in
environmental engineering—were associate chair for educational programs in the Department
Finally, work we are conducting at CDC
has helped highlight the ubiquity of
exposure to perfluorinated substances in
drinking water across America. Potentially
hundreds of millions of Americans are
exposed to these substances, which are
found in consumer products, industrial
emissions and firefighting foam.
of Environmental Health Sciences, director of the Industrial Hygiene Training Program and
co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment.
Your father was a University of
Washington professor whose
groundbreaking environmental health
studies earned him the moniker, “The
Ralph Nader of the Pacific Northwest.”
When did your own interest in
environmental health science begin?
It started in high school, sitting around
the dinner table talking about things my
father was working on. I did a science
project on noise levels encountered
around the house. My father was
frequently in the news because of his
work, which stimulated a lot of curiosity
on my part. He was a founding member
of the Department of Environmental
Health at the University of Washington.
Many of the issues he dealt with in
the 1960s and ‘70s are still plaguing us
today. He encouraged me to specialize
in occupational and environmental
health. I think that was good advice.
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LAB MATTERS Fall 2017
What have been some of your
most notable, and surprising,
research findings?
Research conducted with my colleagues
at Johns Hopkins produced some of the
first observations identifying mouse
allergen exposure as an important risk
factor for asthmatic children in the
inner city. Unlike cockroach allergen,
which isn’t readily entrained into the air,
mouse allergen is contained on smaller
particles that can be suspended in air. I
also collaborated on a number of studies
looking at health effects of wildfire
smoke exposure in the northeastern US
coming from fires in Canada thousands of
kilometers away. We detected an increase
in indoor and outdoor air pollution and in
hospitalizations for respiratory diseases.
This finding is very relevant to what we’re
seeing today, with wildfires across the
country. I was also involved in the earliest
studies of the health impact of biomass
cooking in the developing world. This is
a tremendous source of morbidity and
mortality, and if we want to address the
global burden of disease, this is one of
the biggest places to start. While I began
this work at Johns Hopkins, I continue
to direct efforts on this issue at CDC.
What is an industrial hygienist,
and how are such professionals
important to public health?
An industrial hygienist is an
environmental health specialist who
concentrates on worker safety and
health. When I was at JHU, I taught in
the industrial hygiene training program
and did research and consulted as an
industrial hygienist. I’m very proud
of being credentialed as a certified
industrial hygienist. My background
in industrial hygiene prepared
me well for a broader career as an
environmental health scientist.
You have been involved in health
and exposure studies across the
globe, from Peru to Nepal. What
have you learned about working
with vulnerable communities?
It’s a challenge to work with communities
anywhere in the world. Much of the
burden of environmental risk is borne by
vulnerable populations. No matter which
community we work with, we are ethically
bound to receive informed consent to
participate. This requires us to explain the
risks associated with data collection (e.g.
blood draws for biomonitoring studies)
and to communicate the results back
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