Join us for this week's BAE Departmental Seminar!
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
2:10 PM
Title:
Environmental Contaminants and Human Health: the Example of Thirdhand Cigarette Smoke
Speaker:
Suzaynn Schick, Associate Professor of Medicine, UC San Francisco
Abstract:
Thirdhand cigarette smoke comprises the residual chemicals from cigarette smoke that linger in the environment after smoking. Dominated by semivolatile organic compounds, thirdhand smoke sorbs to surfaces and dust and remains in indoor environments for extended periods. It can reemit into the air and can also react to form new chemicals. Common reaction products of sorbed thirdhand cigarette smoke include secondary organic aerosols and the carcinogens formaldehyde and NNK. Prof. Schick will describe the collaboration with UC Davis that led to the creation of an apparatus for controlled exposure to aged cigarette smoke, the chemical analyses and discoveries that the apparatus permitted and the health effects of exposure to secondhand and thirdhand cigarette smoke.
Bio:
Professor Suzaynn Schick is an environmental scientist who studies the health effects of air pollutants. She received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Stan Glantz, she published some of the first data showing that the respiratory toxicity of secondhand smoke is greater than that of the smoke that smokers inhale and that the chemical compounds in secondhand smoke can react to create new, potentially more carcinogenic compounds. In collaboration with researchers and staff at UC Davis, she created a stateoftheart secondhand and thirdhand smoke exposure system that reproduces the physical and chemical changes that occur after smoke is released into indoor environments. She has shown that the majority of the particulate material, nicotine, tobaccospecific nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in secondhand smoke deposit on indoor surfaces before they can be removed by ventilation. She runs a Core Laboratory for the California Thirdhand Smoke Consortium that produces standardized thirdhand smoke samples for research in laboratories around the world. She also studies the cardiovascular and respiratory effects of active use of tobacco and nicotine delivery products and exposure to biomass smoke in human subjects. Her clinical research has shown that very short exposures to secondhand smoke cause vascular dysfunction and nasal congestion.
Refreshments will be served.
Location:
2045 Bainer Hall University of California Davis