The ESRAC team in the lab, 2016
The Environment, Exposure Science & Risk Assessment Center
The Environment, Exposure Science & Risk Assessment Center (ESRAC) was founded in 2013 by Kelly Reynolds, PhD, Mary Kay O’Rourke, PhD, and Leslie Dennis, PhD to bring scientific analysis and assessment that would meet community needs.
ESRAC’s mission is to provide expertise to industry, the community, and researchers in the areas of human exposure to hazards in the environment. These include a variety of chemical, biological, and physical hazards we come into contact with throughout our daily lives that can impact our health at home, in the workplace, and within our communities.
The current Director of ESRAC, Dr. Kelly Reynolds, guides the Center and its many projects while Dr. O’Rourke, Dr. Dennis and Marc Verhougstraete, PhD, are current co-directors. Jonathan Sexton, PhD, MS, serves as a Research Specialist, Senior and the K-12 Outreach Coordinator for ESRAC. Collaborating members come from the University of Arizona Colleges of Public Health, Agriculture, Medicine, and Engineering.
One primary area of research includes tracking and preventing healthcare-acquired infections which cause approximately 100,000 deaths every year in the U.S. The approach promotes the understanding of environmental exposures in the context of human health and safety through hazard identification, monitoring and modeling of exposures, evaluating the impacts of intervention and mitigation strategies on health outcomes, and quantifying the economic impact of these exposures.
ESRAC investigators use a team approach to leverage the strengths of experts across different fields, including microbiology, medicine, epidemiology, public health, and mathematical modeling. This collective knowledge is needed to solve the complex issues of today where we are exposed to a multitude of potentially hazardous compounds present in the environment – including our food, water, and air. These findings inform policy initiatives, direct technology development, educate communities, and prioritize public health projects.
Dr. Kelly Reynolds extends her gratitude to the donors who helped to make ESRAC possible and support the College’s “One Health” program in this video.
The ESRAC team works with the Tucson Fire Department
on a training video for COVID-19 response
Supporting First Responders
ESRAC has also helped develop multiple training programs for first responders, including the Tucson Fire Department, Tucson Police Department, and various healthcare delivery professionals.
In collaboration with the Tucson Fire Department (TFD) and the Western Regional Public Health Training Center (WRPHTC) at MEZCOPH, ESRAC created a training video for firefighters and EMS responders about the best protocols to avoid infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. This training video has received more than 20,000 views on YouTube.
National Impact
In another highlight, ESRAC, in collaboration with the Western Region Public Health Training Center, CDC, National Network of Public Health Institutes, and an advisory team developed a free online training program on creating a water management program to reduce the risk for Legionnaires’ disease. More than 1,000 participants have completed the 3-hour interactive training and it was the most popular course offered by the Western Region Public Health Training Center in 2018-2019.
The Center also provided the platform for a team of researchers, led by Dr. Jeong-Yeol Yoon from the UA College of Engineering and Dr. Kelly Reynolds, to develop a smartphone-based field test method to monitor water supplies for human norovirus and other contaminants in 2019. The American Chemical Society (ACS) Omega, recognized this publication as one of the top 50 most outstanding articles to demonstrate the quality of work published over the last 5 years.
From left: Kelly A. Reynolds, PhD, chair of the Department of Community, Environment and Policy in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health; Jeong-Yeol Yoon, PhD, a researcher in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Biosystems Engineer
ESRAC continues to provide outstanding service and leadership in exposure science and risk assessment, a vital field in our complex modern world. Their work will provide the data, the guidance, and the tools to keep our communities healthy and informed for a better tomorrow.
Learn more about ESRAC here: https://esrac.arizona.edu