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Indoor
Air Quality Research Internship Openings
The
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Program at California Department of Health
Services has several Internship positions available in the upcoming
year. We offer an
abundance of interesting research and policy activities for students
seeking projects with real-life application or “real data” to
analyze. Our staff
members will provide supervision and collaboration.
The IAQ Program is located at the DHS’ Richmond Laboratory
Campus (near the UC Richmond Field Station), although much of the work
can be performed off-site, using email connectivity with our staff.
There
are projects in the following general areas:
(see below)
o
Public
Outreach & Risk Communication
o
Bioaerosols:
Exposure & Health
o
Emissions
From Building Materials & Other Products (and IAQ modeling)
o
Population
Health Risks From Radon Exposure
Internships
are available to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Students in Public Health, Engineering, Information
Management, Building Sciences, and others are invited to apply.
Although we have offered paid internships in the past, we are
unable to support paid positions at this time.
Limited financial support is available on some projects, and we
hope to develop funding in some areas for the future.
Those
interested should submit (a) a current resume and (b) a cover letter
outlining their specific interest and background; also indicate that
if the project would be used for course credit, .
These may be submitted via email:
Staff@dhs.ca.gov.
Jed
Waldman, Ph.D.
Chief,
Indoor Air Quality Section
PUBLIC
OUTREACH & RISK COMMUNICATION
Asthma
& IAQ Technical Assistance Hotline.
Materials
(FAQs) and phone protocols are being developed for our technical
assistance program, as well as training materials for duty officers.
Opportunity for student project on public outreach and health
education/risk communication.
Database
on IAQ Technical Assistance Clients.
Contact
records (paper and computerized) for phone and e-mail need to be
aggregated and analyzed. Records
cover 5+ years. This is
an opportunity for a student project on public outreach and health
education.
Web
Site Upgrade.
This
project involves upgrading the DHS-IAQ web sites to improve its
general utility and to provide better service to low-literacy clients.
On-line registration for an IAQ firm database is under
development. Here are
opportunities for students to assist with web-design or writing health
education materials.
BIOAEROSOLS:
EXPOSURE & HEALTH
Bioaerosols
& Childhood Asthma
§
Literature review and summary of the contribution to asthma
development and exacerbation of exposure in early life to pollen, mold
spores, bacterial endotoxin, and indoor allergens such as house dust
mite, cockroach, and cat antigens.
§
Analysis of indoor and outdoor exposure measurements and respiratory
health outcomes.
§
Analysis of descriptive home characteristics associated with
bioaerosol exposures and respiratory health outcomes.
Bioaerosol
Exposures In Large Office Buildings
§
Literature review and summary of the contribution to building-related
illness of workplace exposures to mold, bacteria, and indoor allergens
such as house dust mite and cat antigens.
§
Analysis of indoor and outdoor exposure measurements and building
occupants’ perception of indoor environmental quality.
§
Analysis of descriptive building characteristics and building
occupants’ perception of indoor environmental quality.
EMISSIONS
FROM BUILDING MATERI
ALS & OTHER PRODUCTS
Controlled-Environment
Emission Testing Facilities.
Our
Richmond facilities include a new walk-in room-sized chamber and
several small chambers. This
is an opportunity for an engineering student to assist us with
commissioning the HVAC systems, monitoring equipment, and data
acquisition of our chambers
IAQ
Testing Data Analyses
This
project includes analyses of indoor air quality data collected during
our 18-month study in buildings of the Capitol Area East End Complex
in Sacramento before and after occupancy.
There are opportunities to assist in developing statistical and
graphical presentations of the results, and the comparison of the
collected data to other large-scale indoor air studies of
non-complaint buildings,
such as the U.S. EPA BASE study and the California Healthy Buildings
Study.
Emission
rates from building materials
This
project involves testing modular office furniture in our large
environmental chamber (at our Berkeley Way facility), including
measuring emissions by collecting air samples at regular time
intervals over a period of 14 days.
This internship includes performance of sampling and laboratory
(GC/MS and HPLC) analyses.
Investigation
of Chemicals in Cleaning Products
We
are developing a database on the chemical composition of the
janitorial cleaning products. A
further goal of this project will be to use this data to interpret
indoor air data from the East End study (above).
HEALTH
RISKS FROM RADON EXPOSURE
Health
Risk & GIS analyses for California.
Risk
assessments are performed to estimate/predict the lung cancer
mortality risk due to the residential radon exposure using the census
data and smoking prevalence in California.
Long- term radon exposure data were collected in the residences
and schools (N~1000) in the Sierra Region in 1999-2000.
Data mapping using ArcView or other GIS software will be used
to identify the potential “hot spot(s)” in the region.
There is also an opportunity to conduct an analysis of policy
intervention options (e.g., screening/targeting smoking households
resided in areas with high radon levels for risk reduction).
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