Organophosphates (OPs) are a common class of neurotoxic pesticides. Exposure at even low doses can disrupt healthy development, particularly during susceptible windows such as pregnancy. In this EDC Strategies Partnership/Young EDC Scientists Showcase (YESS) webinar, Haleigh Cavalier, MPH, PhD and Eleanor Medley, MPH will discuss potential health outcomes and biological pathways associated with OP exposure during this vulnerable window using data from the New York University Children’s Health and Environment Study (NYU CHES), a NYC-based birth cohort.
Dr. Cavalier uses targeted metabolomics data to explore molecular mechanisms through which OPs may affect health during pregnancy. Her work found evidence of disruption through multiple important mechanisms including oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Eleanor Medley investigated associations of prenatal OP exposure with fetal growth in NYU CHES and found that reported prenatal OP exposure was associated with lower estimated fetal size in females in the second trimester and in males in the third trimester.
This webinar will be moderated by Sarah Howard, Program Manager at HEEDS.
Featured Speakers
Eleanor Medley, MPH is a PhD candidate in epidemiology at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Her research focuses on prenatal environmental chemical exposures, maternal-child health outcomes, and placental mechanisms. She also works on returning individual environmental biomonitoring research results to participants.
Haleigh Cavalier, PhD, MPH is a recent graduate in the Epidemiology PhD program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine where her dissertation investigated molecular mechanisms of the effects of prenatal organophosphate pesticide exposure child neurodevelopment. She is currently a postdoctoral research scientist in the Epidemiology Department at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health where she is studying built-environmental factors such as greenspace exposure and tree canopy coverage on mental health outcomes.
This webinar is hosted by the EDC Strategies Partnership, which is co-chaired by Sharyle Patton (Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center), Jerry Heindel and Sarah Howard (Environmental Health Sciences' Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies, HEEDS), Génon Jensen (Health and Environment Alliance, HEAL), and Rachel Massey (Collaborative for Health and Environment, CHE). To see a full list of past calls and webinars related to EDCs and listen to or view recordings, please visit our partnership page.
This webinar is also part of the Young EDC Scientists Showcase (YESS) webinar series, sponsored by the Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (HEEDS) Mentoring Working Group and coordinated by the Collaborative for Health and Environment (CHE). This series features speakers in the early stages of their careers, such as PhD students, post-docs, and other early-career researchers who study endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).