UA SRP Hosts Dr. Karen Bradham, US EPA Metals Bioavailability Expert

March 25, 2014

Dr. Karen Bradham, Research Physical Scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), came to Tucson to interact with the University of Arizona Superfund Research Program (UA SRP) March 25-28, 2014. She was invited by UA SRP investigator Dr. Paloma Beamer, who has collaborated with Dr. Bradham due to their service as External Advisors on an exposure study at Taipei Medical University. Dr. Bradham is with the EPA Office of Research and Development’s National Exposure Research Laboratory. She works in the Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division to develop and apply in vitro and in vivo bioavailability methods that will improve human exposure and risk assessments for metals such as arsenic and lead.

While Dr. Bradham’s bioavailability studies have included a number of samples from the Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter Superfund site located in Dewey-Humboldt, AZ, she had never personally visited  the site. She travelled to Dewey-Humboldt with a team of UA SRP personnel to observe a Community Advisory Board meeting as well as to tour the site, and learn more about the UA SRP field projects that are taking place on top of the tailings as well as the studies taking place in the community. Back in Tucson, Dr. Bradham met with a number of UA SRP investigators and had lunch with UA SRP trainees, who had an opportunity to learn from her about her career and her experiences at the EPA. She was also a featured speaker at the monthly UA SRP Colloquium, where she discussed “Development and application of bioavailability methods for assessing inorganic soil contamination." She included her bioavailability work at Iron King and other Superfund sites, and demonstrated the benefits of site-specific assessments for both EPA and Superfund-impacted communities.

One exciting outcome of Dr. Bradham’s visit is the development of research collaborations between Dr. Bradham and a number of UA SRP investigators to better understand bioaccessibility/bioavailability of soils and dusts at the Iron King site, and the impacts of phytoremediation. Says Bradham of her visit, “I enjoyed learning more about the UA SRP research at the Iron King site and observing the Community Advisory Board meeting to better understand the community’s concerns.  I appreciate the time the UA SRP investigators took to meet with me and learning more about their novel research.  I Iook forward to collaborating with the UA SRP investigators in the future on several projects of interest to our respective programs.”