Title:  
Professor

Institute:
Queen's University Cancer Research Institute, Kingston

Department:  
Community Health and Epidemiology

Province:
Ontario

Training:
Postdoctoral Fellow: International Agency for Research on Cancer
PhD, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
MSc, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
BSc, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Research interests:
environmental epidemiology, causes of cancer, prevention

Recognitions:
Raine Visiting Scholar Award to the University of Western Australia, Perth, January 2010

Career highlights:
Contribution to meta-analysis methods; health effects of fire fighting and worker’s compensation impact; breast and prostate cancer risk associated with pesticides
 

Research Projects

Project title:
Measuring Traffic Exposure and Assessing Environmental Equity

Funding period:  
2010-2012

Program:
Operating Grant (Environment-cancer)

Summary:
Air pollution, particularly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), may cause cancer in humans.  A new approach to measuring exposure is based on a location (geographic information systems: GIS) and measures traffic density during all daily activities. In this study, we will examine how closely PAH in urine is related to self-reported estimates of PAHs; how this measure relates to the new GIS-based method; and, relationships of traffic exposure with income, education and ethnic group.   600 women ages 35-79 in Vancouver will be enrolled. This project will show if a new method to measure air pollution is suitable for use in cancer risk studies, and how traffic exposure differs by education, income, and ethnic group, for use in cancer prevention policy and intervention.