Dr. Ellen Silbergeld, professor of environmental health sciences, conducts research that connects environmental and occupational exposures to health risks in human populations, using both experimental and epidemiological studies. Her areas of current research include: understanding the environmental and human health impacts of antibiotic use in food animal production in Maryland, understanding the mechanisms of mercury immunotoxicity, in mercury-induced neurodevelopmental toxicity, decreased host resistance to infection, and increased risks of autoimmune disease. She is also interested in the effects of lead exposure on violent behavior, effects of exercise on bone lead release in menopausal women, and the role of exposure in women's health issues after the menopause. Dr. Silbergeld received her PhD from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and postdoctoral training in environmental health sciences at the School of Public Health. Dr. Silbergeld has published hundreds of papers in environmental toxicology, including research on the biological effects of lead, dioxin, and mercury. That work undoubtedly contributed to her winning a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (popularly known as the "genius award") in 1993. In 1982, she left what she calls her "scientific cocoon" for a decade of advocacy work with the Environmental Defense Fund. In Addition to her position with the EDF, she held scientific positions at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland. Dr. Silbergeld's work has been recognized by fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Commission, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Public Health Association. She serves on numerous editorial boards, including as editor-in-chief of Environmental Research, and she has been a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board, the CDC Center for Environmental Health Board of Scientific Councilors, the Scientific Board of the National Toxicology Program - NIH, as well as many expert committees for NIH, EPA, WHO, OECD, PAHO, and the National Academy of Sciences. Involvement with the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation: In 1996 The Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation made a commitment of $450,000 for three years support of women's health and the environment. Dr. Ellen Silbergeld and her team of doctors at the University of Maryland Medical School were the recipients of this grant. Dr. Silbergeld ës team set an ambitious goal of defining the common ground of women's health and environmentalism, two major movements in science and public interest, in order to stimulate meaningful scientific and policy interactions. The team was a cohesive group of scientists, clinicians, advocates and educators with extensive connections to government and non-government policy makers. They were members of national and international advisory committees, authors of chapters in influential texts in public health, medicine and reproductive biology. Federal agencies, including the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the US Army Breast Cancer Program have now funded much of the research stimulated by the team's collaborations. Within the first year of the team's research, they developed the multidisciplinary strategy that eventually categorized their work: biomedical research focused on understanding the environmental interactions in women's cancers and an in depth analysis of the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy and chemoprevention of breast cancer; a research strategy focused on formulating critical areas for science and advocacy related to the menopause; public policy and community based work which utilized the opportunity to work with Project LEAD, a national education program for advocates in the many breast cancer groups. Dr. Silbergeld and her team were active in three important policy arenas: in the state of California, to ensure that reproductive toxicants, like lead, were adequately dealt with under the state's innovative toxics information law, Proposition 65 (which the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) helped draft); at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to update guidelines for testing chemicals for reproductive and developmental toxicants; and at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the White House where they succeeded in giving women's environmental and occupational health issues high priority for research at NIH, the EPA and NIOSH. Dr. Silbergeld also participated in the first annual meeting on Women's Health and the Environment in Boston, Massachusetts. In the second year of this project, work focused on synergizing a convergence of the scientific and policy activities. The goals were to define preventable risks of osteoporosis, cognitive deficits (including dementia) and the role of gene-environment interactions in breast and ovarian cancer. Also, continued pressure was put on the NIH to redesign the Women's Health Initiative to include a broader focus of environmental and occupational risks to women's health in their multimillion-dollar multi-year national prospective study. Important information was garnered from the research projects involving premature menopause and health problems that arose after the menopause. Dr. Jodi Flaws, a new faculty member at the University of Maryland began working with Dr. Trudy Bush on understanding differences in breast cancer for Caucasian women and African-American women; she also began to study the potential risks of exposure to chemicals used in dry cleaning for women who are often owner-employees in small shops where chemicals toxic to the ovaries are used. In this year, Dr. Melissa McDiarmid, former Medical Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) joined the group of researchers, adding her expertise on women's occupational health. Along with all of their research, Dr. Silbergeld and her team continued to work with the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation staff in planning meetings on women's health, and the development of a special symposium on women's health and the environment, and participated in the design and analysis of the Heinz survey of working women, which received extensive media coverage. In the third year of the project, Dr. Silbergeld concentrated in two areas: completing a major research project on the impact of menopause on re-exposing women to lead stored in their bones, and the health consequences of this mobilization of bone lead stores; and working with Jeffrey Lewis and Ken Olden of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to develop a national women's health study to examine gene-environment interactions in women's health and disease. Through all of her work and the work of her team, Dr. Silbergeld has advanced the field of women's health and has helped set in to motion programs like the National Institute of Health's Women's Health Initiative, which will benefit countless women in the future. The Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation is proud to have been involved with Dr. Silbergeld in the past, and is thankful for her contributions to our future. Back to Top