WHAT NOW | Environmental Health Sciences Center

Numbers count: Profile of Irva Hertz-Picciotto

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, MPH, MA, PhD is an environmental epidemiologist studying how exposure to substances like metals, pesticides, air pollutants and endocrine disruptors interact with nutrition, genetics and social factors, especially during pregnancy and early child development.

Renowned for her pioneering expertise on environmental factors linked to autism, she’s produced seminal papers on the role exposure to pesticides, traffic-related air pollution, low folic acid intake and untreated fever during pregnancy have on the development of autism in children.

Ongoing research on wildfires in California

We know what natural wildfire smoke is composed of, but we have no idea what will be in urban wildfire smoke. We expect it to be very different.” Keith Bein, UC Davis Air Quality Research Center

Researchers at the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) are working with communities across California to study the physical and emotional impacts wildfires have had on survivors over the past several years. Research is ongoing and will incorporate new wildfires as they erupt.