Paloma Beamer Invited to International Exposure Conference in Taiwan
June 14, 2013
Dr. Paloma Beamer, investigator with the University of Arizona Superfund Research Program (UA SRP) and Dean Carter Binational Center for Environmental Health Sciences, recently returned from a trip to Taiwan this June, 2013. The purpose of her visit there was two-fold: to participate in an international exposure conference, and to observe and provide expertise to a research group at Taipei Medical University.
Dr. Beamer was invited by her colleagues at Taipei Medical University to “Policies, Exposure, and Risk to Babies and Children.” She presented on “Collection and Uses of Activity Patterns for Risk Assessment Modeling” and participated in a panel discussion. She traveled with 3 scientists from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. While in Taiwan they met with Stephen Shen, head of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration.
Dr. Beamer has been serving as an External Advisor on a grant at Taipei Medical University. Thus, this trip also provided an opportunity to give the Taiwanese scientists feedback on their results and to observe the new field techniques they will be using in the future. The purpose of their research is to develop more information on exposure factors specific to their own country in Taiwan for improving risk assessments for children. They are trying to determine the amount of soil and dust ingested by children and how much soil/dust can adhere to their hands and be available for ingestion. These parameters are important for determining if children will be at risk from exposure to chemicals in the soil and/or dust.
Dr. Beamer is an environmental engineer and holds an Assistant Professorship of Environmental Health Sciences in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Arizona Respiratory Center and BIO5 Institute. Apart from the science, she said her favorite part of the trip was “the visit to the daycare where we saw very happy children at a beautiful school with its own community garden. In particular I was really impressed by their healthy lunch - rice, sweet potatoes, tofu soup, and bean sprouts. If only my son got such a healthy lunch at his school!”