Professional Summary
Dr. Hu is a physician board-certified in internal medicine and occupational/environmental medicine who also holds a doctoral degree in epidemiology. He came to UM SPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he directed the Harvard Residency Program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Harvard Metals Epidemiology Research Group, and the Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research; he worked with the Harvard NIEHS Center and the Channing Laboratory of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He taught the main introductory courses in environmental health and medicine at the Harvard SPH for 16 years. Dr. Hu continues his research on metals toxicity by co-directing, with Dr. Robert Wright, what is now the Michigan-Harvard Metals Epidemiology Research Group, which is engaged in multiple NIH- and EPA-funded epidemiologic investigations of the contribution of metals exposure and genetics to the causation of chronic diseases in adults and impaired development in children.
Dr. Hu's research interests also encompass clinical syndromes such as idiopathic environmental intolerances (chemical sensitivities) and emerging children's environmental health issues such as neonatal exposure to phthalates. He served on 3 fact-finding missions and on the board of directors for Physicians for Human Rights and in 1992-1995 was the Chair of the Commission for Research on the Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Production and Testing for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW; Nobel Peace Prize, 1985). He has authored or co-authored over 200 scientific papers and book chapters and co-edited or co-authored 7 books. Dr. Hu was the founding medical editor (and continues as the Associate Medical Editor) of Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Among the awards and honors Dr. Hu has received have been the 1994 Will Solimene Award of Excellence, American Medical Writers Association, the 1997 Alice Hamilton Lectureship at the University of California at San Francisco, the 1998 First Prize for Best Infant Nutrition Research from the Instituto Danone of Mexico, the 1999 NIEHS Scientific Advance of the Year, the 2000 Hoopes prize for mentorship of environmental research, a Senior United States Faculty Fulbright Award to work as a scholar in India 2000-2001, the 2005 Adolph Kammer award for authorship by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and the 2006 Harriett Hardy award from the New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Courses Taught
EHS500: Principles of Environmental Health Sciences
EHS688: Topics in Environmental Health Sciences
EPID813: Advanced seminar on public health and aging
Education
Sc.D., Epidemiology, Harvard University, 1990
M.S., Epidemiology, Harvard University, 1986
M.P.H., Occupational Health, Harvard University, 1982
M.D., Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1982
B.Sc., Biology, Brown University, 1976
Research Interest & Projects
Early Life Exposures in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants
Principal Investigator: Howard Hu
Sponsor: NIEHS
ELEMENT, a collaboration between investigators at the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, has been a model of international teamwork and environmental epidemiology using state-of-the-art methods that won the 1999 NIEHS Progress and Achievement Award. ELEMENT established 3 birth cohorts using similar methods that we continue to follow. In this particular R01 (2006-2011), we are following up, collecting and analyzing new data and samples on all 3 cohorts and capitalizing on a rich associated bank of archived data and samples to address two major themes representing novel hypotheses with critical implications for public health: (A) the potential of fetal neurotoxicant exposure to negatively impact on child behavior (aggression and attention deficit/hyperactivity); and (B) the potential for the impact of fetal neurotoxicant exposures on both cognition and behavior to be modified by gene-environment interactions involving candidate genes critical to NS cholesterol metabolism. Our primary fetal exposure of concern remains environmental lead exposure, because of its continuing primacy as an environmental hazard in the United States and Mexico. This research promises to provide key insights into mechanisms of neurotoxicity, individual susceptibility, and both behavior and cognition as toxic endpoints.
Gene-Metal Interactions and Parkinson's Disease
Principal Investigator: Hu, Howard
Sponsor: NIH/NIEHS
This is a study of Parkinson's Disease (PD) in cases and controls in relation to markers of exposure to lead and other toxins and to the C282Y and H63D polymorphisms of the hemochromatosis (HFE) gene.
Study of Lead Exposure & Outcomes Amongst Children in Chennai, India
Principal Investigator: Hu, Howard
Sponsor: NIH/FIC
This study aims to describe lead exposure and exposure-dose relationships of lead dose to neurobehavioral outcomes (and the modifying effect of genetic polymorphisms on those same relationships) in primary school children in Chennai (formerly Madras), India.
Metals Mixtures and Children's Health (Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research)
Principal Investigator: Hu, Howard
Sponsor: NIH/NIEHS
This new program project consists of 4 inter-disciplinary and highly integrated research projects and 4 cores. The research revolves around the theme of potential interactions between lead and manganese on the neurodevelopment of children born at the Tar Creek Superfund site and entails a community-based epidemiologic study, a community-based environmental exposure assessment study, and a molecular study of metal-metal interactions in relations to metals transport in the gastrointestinal tract and lung.
FAMU and Harvard Center for Health and Health Care Disparities
Principal Investigator: Hu, Howard (of the Center's Research Project)
Sponsor: NIH/NCMHD
The purpose of the grant is to establish a Center for health and health care disparities that uses research, training, community partnerships, coalition building and social transformation to create models for eliminating health disparities in both rural and urban communities.
Lead Biomarkers, Aging, and Chronic Disease
Principal Investigator: Hu, Howard
Sponsor: NIH/NIEHS
The purpose of this study is to test hypotheses regarding the cross-sectional and prospective relationships of lead dose to kidney function, blood pressure, cognitive performance, and other measures of autonomic nervous function; and the potential modifying influence of candidate genetic polymorphisms related to metals metabolism and cholesterol metabolism.
Selected Publications
Park, S.K., O'Neill, M.S., Vokonas, P.S., Spiro, A., Tucker, K., Suh, H., Hu, H., Schwartz, J." (2008). Traffic-related particles are associated with elevated homocysteine: the VA Normative Aging Study American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
Perlstein T., Weuve, J., Schwartz, J., Sparrow, D., Wright, R., Litonjua, A., Nie, H., Hu, H." (December, 2007). Bone and blood lead levels in relation to pulse pressure in community-exposed men: The Normative Aging Study
Weisskopf, M.G., Proctor, S., Wright, R.O., Schwartz, J., Spiro, A., Sparrow, D., Aro, A. and Hu, H." (2007). Prospective study of cumulative lead exposure and performance in different cognitive domains among elderly men: the VA Normative Aging Study Epidemiology, 18, 59-66.
Hu, H., Tellez-Rojo, M.M., Bellinger, D., Smith, D., Ettinger, A.S., Lamadrid-Figueroa, H., Schwartz, J., Schnass, L., Mercado-Garcia, A., Hernandez-Avila, M." (2006). Fetal lead exposure at each stage of pregnancy as a predictor of infant mental development. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114, 1730-1735.
Elmarsafawy, S.F., Jain, N., Schwartz, J., Sparrow, D., Aro, A., and Hu, H." (2006). Dietary calcium as a potential modifer of the relationship of lead burden to blood pressure: the Normative Aging Study. Epidemiology, 17, 531-537.
Weuve, J., Sanchez, B.N., Calafat, A.M., Schettler, T., Green, R. , Hu, H., and Hauer, R. " (2006). Exposure to phthalates in neonatal intensive care unit infants. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114, 14241431.
Weuve, J., Kelsey, K.T., Schwartz, J., Bellinger, D., Rajan, P., Spiro, A., Sparrow, D., Aro, A. and Hu, H." Delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) polymorphism and the relation between low-level lead exposure and cognitive function in older men: the Normative Aging Study Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63, 746-53.
Tellez-Rojo, M.M., Bellinger, D.C., Lamadrid-Figueroa, H., Schaas-Arrieta, L., Arroyo-Quiroz, C., Mercado-Garcia, A., Wright, R.O., Hernandez-Avila, M. and Hu, H." (2006). Longitudinal associations between blood lead concentrations <10 ug/dL and neurobehavioral development in environmentally-exposed children in Mexico City. Pediatrics, 118, e323-30.
Jain, N.B. and Hu, H." (2006). Childhood correlates of blood lead levels in Mumbai and Delhi. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114, 466-70.
Professional Affiliations
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
American Public Health Association
Physicians for Human Rights
Additional Information
In November of 2007, Dr. Hu resumed seeing patients on a consultation basis in the specialty of occupational/environmental medicine in the General Medicine clinic at Taubman Center, the University of Michigan Health System. Appointments usually require physician referral or pre-approval. They can be made through Martha Norris, Lead Office Associate, General Medicine Area B (734-764-8418; norrismm@med.umich.edu).
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