Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine

University of California, Davis Public Health Sciences
102 TB 168
Davis, CA 95616
E-mail:  ihp@ucdavis.edu

Dr. Hertz-Picciotto’s research concerns the impact on health of environmental exposures, including metals, pesticides, air pollutants, and persistent organics such as PCBs. Her focus is on reproductive and early childhood effects, but also includes cancer and cardiovascular conditions. She has developed methodology for assessing risks from occupational and environmental exposures and for the design and statistical analysis of studies of pregnancy outcomes. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto founded the Center on Environmental Health and Susceptibility at the University of North Carolina and currently is Deputy Director of the UC Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health. She has served as president of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, chair of the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences 2000 and 2002 Committees to Review Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, and as a member of numerous state and federal advisory boards, including the  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Board, the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program, and the California Governor's Proposition 65 Scientific Advisory Panel. She is currently the President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, the primary professional society for her field in the U.S.  Dr. Hertz-Picciotto serves on the editorial boards of Epidemiology, American Journal of Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Perspectives, has mentored over 50 doctoral students, and has taught courses on advanced methods in epidemiology in Brazil, Uzbekistan, France, Chile, and throughout the United States.

B.A. University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 1970
M.P.H. University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 1984
M.A. University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 1985
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, California, 1989

Longnecker MP, Wolff MS, Gladen BC, Brock JW, Grandjean P, Jacobson JL, Korrick SA, Rogan WJ, Weisglas-Kuperus N, Hertz-Picciotto I, Ayotte P, Stewart P, Winneke G, Charles MJ, Jacobson SW, Dewailly E, Boersma R, Altshul LM, Heinzow B, Jensen AA. Comparison of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels across studies of human neurodevelopment. Environ Health Persp 111:65-70, 2003. A comparison of the concentrations of PCB exposures in nearly a dozen studies of prenatal exposures in relation to early childhood development.

Dole N, Savitz DA, Hertz-Picciotto I, Siega-Riz AM, McMahon MJ, Buekens P. Maternal stress and preterm birth.  Amer J Epidemiol 157:14-24, 2003. Preterm birth puts an infant at higher risk for some developmental outcomes, and is often also a marker for unfavorable intrauterine circumstances. This study observed that women with higher levels of psychological anxiety experienced a higher rate of preterm delivery, providing some, albeit limited, evidence that maternal mental state is important to fetal development.

Hertz-Picciotto I, Trnovec T, Kocan T, Charles MJ, Inar P, Langer P, Sovikova E, James R. PCB's and early childhood development in Slovakia: Study design and background.  Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 12: 208-214, 2003. This paper describes a recently launched epidemiologic study of a population with exposures to PCBs that are among the highest in the world. This prospective cohort study will follow approximately 1200 children from two towns in eastern Slovakia, measure prenatal exposure from serum specimens, and conduct neurodevelopmental and immunologic tests at various time points from birth through the first few years of life.  It will be the largest study of its type to date, and addresses key aspects of neuro- and immuno-development in human populations.

O'Neill MS, Hertz-Picciotto I, Pastore LM, Weatherly B. Have studies of urinary tract infection and preterm delivery used the most appropriate methods?  Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 17(3):226-233, 2003. This methodologic investigation of analytic methods used for pregnancy outcome studies highlights the problem of time-dependent exposures and time-dependent outcomes. We demonstrate the bias that can result from use of simplistic regression models.

Hopenhayn C, Ferreccio C, Browning SR, Huang B, Peralta C, Gibb H, Hertz-Picciotto I. Lower birthweight associated with maternal exposure to moderate levels of arsenic in drinking water.  Epidemiology 14:593-602, 2003. This study of pregnancy outcome was conducted in two areas of Chile, one in the north, where levels of arsenic have been consistently elevated, and one in the south, where arsenic in drinking water is minimal.  Children in the northern region, which historically was more affluent, experienced lower birth weight, after adjustment for numerous contribution and confounding factors.  This investigation followed up an earlier study of the same region that examined time trends and indicated a possible role of arsenic exposure in increasing fetal and infant mortality.

Renwick AG, Barlow SM, Hertz-Picciotto I, Boobis AR, Dybing E, Edler L, Eisenbrand G, Greig JB, Kleiner J, Lambe J, Muller DJG, Smith MR, Tritscher A, Tuijtelaars S, van den Brandt PA, Walker R, Kroes R. Risk characterization of chemicals in food and diet.  Food Chem Toxicol 41(9):1211-71, 2003. Summary of a working group from the International Life Sciences Institute on methods to characterize risks from chemicals in food and diet.

Harville EW, Schramm M, Watt-Morse M, Chantala K, Anderson JJB, Hertz-Picciotto I. Sources of calcium among white and African-American pregnant women.  J Amer Coll Nutr 23(1):43-50, 2004. In a low-income urban study population of about 50% white and 50% African-American, over 1/3 of the pregnant women were consuming less than the RDA (recommended daily allowance) for calcium, and about 1/4 were below the AI (adequate intake) level of 1000 mg/day.  Six percent were consuming less than 600 mg/day, and  younger women were at the highest risk for inadequate calcium. 

Richardson DB, Wing S, Lorey F, Hertz-Picciotto I. Adult Hemoglobin Levels at Birth and Risk of SIDS.  Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 158:366-371, 2004.   
This study demonstrated a clear dose-response relationship in which the lower the percentage of adult hemoglobin in the infant's blood, the greater the risk for death from SIDS.  Using a population-based sample of over 3 million births in California and the newborn blood spots collected by the state's Newborn Screening Program, we found that the adult hemoglobin at the time of birth predicted a later SIDS event.  The importance of this investigation is that it provides the strongest indication to date that hematologic events in the prenatal period are related to SIDS.

Dole N, Savitz DA, Siega-Riz AM, Hertz-Picciotto I, McMahon M, Buekens P. Psychosocial factors and preterm birth among African-American and White women in central North Carolina.  Amer J Pub Health 94:1358-1365, 2004.   This study surveyed 1898 women who used university and public health prenatal clinics regarding various psychosocial factors. The results indicated that African Americans were at higher risk of preterm birth if they used distancing from problems as a coping mechanism or reported racial discrimination. Whites were at higher risk if they had high counts of negative life events or were not living with a partner. The association of pregnancy-related anxiety with preterm birth weakened when medical comorbidities were taken into account. No association with preterm birth was found for depression, general social support, or church attendance.

Hertz-Picciotto I (Chair), Berhane KT, Bleecker ML, Engstrom PF, Fenske RA, Gasiewicz TA, Guidotti TL, Koller LD, Stegeman JJ, Strogatz DS [Committee to review the health effects in Vietnam Veterans of exposure to herbicides (Fourth Biennial Update)], Veterans and Agent Orange, Update 2000.  Institute of Medicine (IOM), Washington, DC. National Academy Press, 2003. This report reviewed and evaluated the available scientific evidence regarding the association between exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) or other chemical compounds contained in herbicides used in Vietnam and a wide range of health effects. The report provided information for the secretary of veterans affairs to consider as the Department of Veterans Affairs carried out its responsibilities to Vietnam veterans. It also described areas in which the available scientific data were insufficient to determine whether an association exists and provided the committee's recommendations for future research.

PCB Exposures and Sex Ratio, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology,
Perth, Australia, September 2003.

Preliminary observations on endocrine disrupting effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the population exposed to heavy environmental pollution, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, Perth, Australia, September 2003.

Prenatal heptachlor epoxide exposure and cognitive development, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, Perth, Australia, September 2003.

Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange, Invited Speaker, American Public Health Association, San Francisco, CA, Nov 2003.

Infant and Child Neurotoxicity Studies: Subtle and Long-Term Effects, Invited Speaker, Twenty-first International Neurotoxicology Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, February 2004.

Environmental Factors in Autism, Invited Speaker, Twenty-first International Neurotoxicology Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, February 2004.

Fetal and Early Childhood Growth in Relation to Prenatal PCB Exposures: Results from the Child Health and Development Study, Invited Speaker, Northern California Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) Semi-annual meeting, February 25, 2004. 

Reproductive Epidemiology: Timing is Everything, Invited Speaker, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, April 2004.

Causal inference and the design of case-control studies, American Epidemiological Society 77th Annual Meeting, Seattle WA, March 2004,

Case-control studies, causal inference, and the assessment of validity, Invited Speaker, National Cancer Institute Distinguished Lecture in Occupational & Environmental Health, Bethesda, MD, June 2004.
 

Co-Principal Investigator (Pessah, PI): Environmental Factors in the Etiology of autism, NIEHS, 9/01-8/31/06, $1,000,000 annually.  Project 1- (PI: I Hertz-Picciotto: Environmental Epidemiology of Autism) $250,000 annually. This Center will carry out a multi-disciplinary investigation of environmental factors and autism.  Epidemiologic, in vivo primate, and cell system studies are included as complementary units.  Project 1 is a case control epidemiologic study that will address a broad array of environmental exposures, susceptibility factors, and their interaction in the etiology of autism.

Co-investigator: Epidemiology of Exertion, Stress, and Preterm Delivery, NICHD/NIH, 11/99-1/05, $367,925 annual direct. This project is designed to comprehensively address exertion and stress during pregnancy in a prospective cohort study of 2,000 women who enrolled for prenatal care at Wake County Human Services Department/Wake Medical Center before the end of the 24th week of gestation.

Principal Investigator: Early Childhood Health Effects of Air Pollution, Health Effects Institute, 07/00-10/04, $213,625 annual direct. This study will examine childhood morbidity during the first three years of life in a birth cohort from the Czech Republic in relation to measures of particulate matter and other pollutants during the pre- and post-natal period.

Principal Investigator: Early Childhood Development and PCB Exposures in Slovakia, NIH/NCI, 09/01-08/05, $495,269 annual direct. This study will examine prenatal and postnatal PCB exposures in relation to immune markers in early childhood, growth, and neurobehavioral development.  The focus is on a population in eastern Slovakia residing in two areas, representing high and law environmental contamination.

Principal Investigator: International Society Environmental Epidemiology 2003, NIH/NIEHS, 9/03-8/04, $20,000 annual direct. This conference grant provides support for travel scholarships to the 15th annual conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE).

Principal Investigator: Distribution of Autism in California: A Spatial Analysis, UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute Investigator-Initiated Research Grant, 7/04-6/05, $30,000 annual direct. The focus of this project is on developing a picture of autism across the state, and particularly in describing the geographic and socioeconomic factors that correlate with this disorder.

Principal Investigator: Methods Development for Exposure-Related Behaviors, EPA, 8/04-7/09, $1,063,427 annual direct.  The proposed project will develop data collection platforms that can be used in longitudinal assessments of change in exposure-related behaviors. These platforms, which are designed to vary in the demand on participants, will then be tested in a population-based sample of households. The data to be collected will characterize short-term, seasonal, and long-term changes in daily activities, food consumption habits, and use of household and personal care products.

NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health) National Occupational Research Agenda
(NORA) Cancer Research Methods Team
NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Scientific Panel Workshop
California Governor’s Carcinogen Identification Committee for Proposition 65
Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, reviewer
Scientific Advisory Committee, Anniston Study of PCB’s and Human Health

Elected to the American Epidemiological Society
NAS/NRC Lifetime Appointment as National Associate of the National Academies; awarded by the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council
NCI Distinguished Lecturer in Occupational and Environmental Cancer, National Cancer Institute, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, 2004
Past-President, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
President-elect, Society for Epidemiologic Research