Christine Marie George, PhD
Professor, Department of International Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
She/her
Description: Chronic arsenic exposure has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease; diabetes; cancers of the lung, pancreas and prostate; and all-cause mortality in American Indian communities in the Strong Heart Study. The Strong Heart Water Study (SHWS) designed and evaluated a multilevel, community-led arsenic mitigation program to reduce arsenic exposure among private well users in partnership with Northern Great Plains American Indian Nations. Delivery of the interventions for the community-led SHWS arsenic mitigation program, including the installation of a point-of-use arsenic filter and a mHealth program on the use of arsenic-safe water (calls only, no home visits), resulted in a significant reduction in urinary arsenic and increases in reported use of arsenic-safe water for drinking and cooking during the 2-y study period. These results demonstrate that the installation of an arsenic filter and phone calls from a mHealth program presents a promising approach to reduce water arsenic exposure among private well users.
About the speaker: Dr. George is an epidemiologist and environmental engineer. Her career focuses on implementing interdisciplinary approaches that promote health equity to solve complex environmental health challenges in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and other low resource settings globally. Dr. George has 16 years of experience conducting water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) studies domestically and internationally, including directing nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of community and health facility-based WASH interventions. Her interdisciplinary research portfolio spans infectious disease and environmental epidemiology, genomics to investigate disease outbreaks, WASH RCTs, environmental engineering to evaluate water filtration technologies, and formative research driven by health behavior theory for the design and implementation of WASH behavioral interventions. Through employing these methods, Dr. George has partnered with communities to design effective WASH interventions to reduce diarrheal diseases and improve child growth in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and reduce arsenic exposure in Bangladesh and in partnership with American Indian communities. Dr. George’s current research activities include directing seven WASH RCTs, and three cohort studies conducted in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in partnership with American Indian Nations.
Thursday, March 6, 2025, 12:00-1:15pm Eastern
Field Auditorium, Room 1112, Grainger Hall (9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC)
This seminar will also be presented live via Zoom. Click HERE to register.