Monthly Updates - January 2012

UPCOMING EVENTS

Brian Zikmund-Fisher is giving keynote at this year's Donaghue Foundation Conference: Evaluating Risk: How perception shapes our health.
May 3, Farmington, CT

Risk Science presents A World Of Surprises, with speculative designer James King. March 2012 - further details to follow. Further details on Risk Science Unplugged events at: http://www.sph.umich.edu/riskcenter/unplugged/index.htm

RECENT ACTIVITIES

Andrew Maynard is currently overseeing ten Masters of Public Health students as they write about science and public health on the blog Mind the Science Gap. The course is designed to develop the students' communication skills as they synthesize scientific research for a broad public audience, and respond to comments. Please support the students by reading and commenting at http://mindthesciencegap.org.

Andrew Maynard is a member of the just-published National Academies research strategy for engineered nanomaterial risk research. Further details here.

Andrew Maynard contributed to the 2012 World Economic Forum Risk Report. For an overview of how the report relates to public health risk, see here.

PUBLICATIONS

Wang Y, Goodrich JM, Gillespie B, Werner R, Basu N, Franzblau A.
"An Investigation of Modifying Effects of Metallothionein Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms on the Association between Mercury Exposure and Biomarker Levels".
Environ Health Perspect. 2012 Jan 9. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID:22233731 [link]

Wang Y, Goodrich JM, Werner R, Gillespie B, Basu N, Franzblau A.
"An investigation of modifying effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms in metabolism-related genes on the relationship between peripheral nerve function and mercury levels in urine and hair"
Sci Total Environ. 2012 Jan 9. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID:22236634 [link]

Nie G, Hah HJ, Kim G, Lee YE, Qin M, Ratani TS, Fotiadis P, Miller A, Kochi A, Gao D, Chen T, Orringer DA, Sagher O, Philbert MA, Kopelman R. "Hydrogel Nanoparticles with Covalently Linked Coomassie Blue for Brain Tumor Delineation Visible to the Surgeon."Small. 2012 Jan 9. doi: 10.1002/smll.201101607. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID:22232034 [link]

Rhodes ET, Goran MI, Lieu TA, Lustig RH, Prosser LA, Songer TJ, Weigensberg MJ, Weinstock RS, Gonzalez T, Rawluk K, Zoghbi RM, Ludwig DS, Laffel LM. "Health-Related Quality of Life in Adolescents with or at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus."
J Pediatr. 2012 Jan 3. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID:22217471 [link]

Langford AT, Resnicow K, Roberts JS, Zikmund-Fisher BJ. "Racial and Ethnic Differences in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests Awareness in HINTS 2007: Sociodemographic and Numeracy Correlates."
J Genet Couns. 2012 Jan 21. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID:22271378 [link]

PRESENTATIONS

Andrew Maynard presented "Rethinking Science and Technology Innovation for the 21st Century" to the The Michigan Energy Club (MEC)
Jan 11, Ann Arbor, MI

RSC IN THE MEDIA

Study of the Day: 9 Out of 10 City Dwellers At Risk of Hearing Loss
The Atlantic, Jan 6

MP3 players may be major source of hearing loss
USA Today, Jan 8

FDA Faces Challenge of Dealing With Scientific Uncertainty
Therapeutics Daily, Jan 9

The Health Hazard That's in Your Pocket Right Now
Men's Health, Jan 11

NRC Report Calls for New Nano Safety Research Strategy
Science Insider, Jan 25

THE RISK SCIENCE BLOG

Spare a comment - student science writers need your help!

A decade after anthrax, scary white powders still arrive by mail

Scientific Triumph Meets Political Nightmare: H5N1 Raises Issues of Fear and Free Speech

2012 World Economic Forum Global Risk Report and its relevance to public health

Fungicides in orange juice - quick facts

Going to Pot: A dangerous concoction of science journals, media and publicity

Identification of Environmental Survival Factors For A. baumannii and Risk Assessment of Exposure

Mind the Science Gap - Helping science students connect with a non-science audience


Risk Science Center updates are emailed on the last Thursday of each month.
Follow the Center on Twitter at @umrsc, and on the web at umriskcenter.org and umrscblogs.org.