Over the past few years, research by Milken Institute School of Public Health Assistant Professor Ami Zota has brought to light previously unsuspected environmental health concerns related to people’s consumption of and exposure to fast food, a variety of beauty products, and household dust. In the process of educating students, Congresspeople, fellow researchers, and the consumers about both how they can be exposed to chemicals from common products and everyday activities, her research has included investigations into how to reduce exposures.
Zota has also raised awareness about many other important issues in her more than 30 published papers, many of them groundbreaking, examining the interplay between environmental chemicals exposures and social factors on the health of vulnerable populations, including mothers, children, and underserved groups. In recognition of all this and her many other accomplishments over the past decade since she completed her masters and doctorate in Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, Zota’s work will be featured in an upcoming webinar series highlighting work by the next generation of environmental health scientists and advocates that is shaping the future of environmental health science and advocacy. The webinars are being put on by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating people on the ways in which the environment impacts human health.
“These young scientists are doing exciting, innovative work that will influence how we address environmental challenges to our health in the future. Their webinars promise to be both interesting and informative,” said Linda S. Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the senior leaders and luminaries in environmental public health who served on the committee that nominated young researchers to CHE.
“Professor Zota’s work has raised attention about some very important environmental health issues, and her efforts to both uncover new environmental exposure concerns and investigate ways to ameliorate them sets her apart. Her contributions to the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health as a researcher, teaching instructor, and student advisor are invaluable,” says Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health George Gray.
Zota has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Passport Foundation, and New York Community Trust among others. Much of her current research involves human exposure science and reproductive and perinatal epidemiology studies of endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as flame retardants, phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), and others. Her projects often include analyses of the implications of these risks for health disparities.
Zota’s research has been featured in Environmental Health News, the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other news media. She serves as co-director of Culminating Experiences for MPH students in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.