Associate Professor
Department of Family Medicine and Public Health
University of California San Diego
jrsuarez@ucsd.edu
Fellowship Project: Nuts and Olestra for Persistent Organic Pollutant Reduction (NO-POPs) Trial: A Pilot Investigation.
“My main research interests involve understanding the role of environmental pollutants on child development and alterations in metabolism in adults. As part of the JPB Environmental Health Program, I lead the Nuts and Olestra for Persistent Organic Pollutant Reduction Trial, which aims to test the efficacy of 2 dietary interventions (nuts or olestra) on enhancing the excretion of Persistent Organic Pollutants, such as PCBs, PBDE flame retardants and organochlorine pesticides among older adults in San Diego, CA.”
Research Expertise
I have conducted several studies in agricultural populations. I am the principal investigator of the NIH funded Secondary Exposure to Pesticides among Children and Adolescents study (ESPINA– Estudio de la Exposicion Secundaria a Plaguicidas en Niños y Adolescentes). The ESPINA study is a longitudinal study established in 2008 aimed at understanding the associations of sub-clinical exposures to pesticides with short- and long-term alterations in the development of children living the agricultural county of Pedro Moncayo, Ecuador. Our work focuses on mental health, endocrine, respiratory and enzymatic changes associated with exposures to many classes of pesticides and persistent organic pollutants. Currently we have completed the 2016 follow-up examination. I am involved in community-based participatory processes in Ecuador in which we are collecting community health surveys and mental health screenings of large rural populations. In these activities, we are interested in answering questions that directly respond to the needs of the communities. I am also investigating within the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study the associations of persistent organic pollutants (i.e. organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, PBDEs, PBBs) and markers of oxidative stress with and alterations in glucose and lipid metabolism, and subclinical heart disease in middle age adults.
This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.