Colorado School of Public Health In the News

Fountain Valley residents are seeing the levels of forever chemicals in their blood drop over time, although the level of one substance remains high compared to people across the nation, results of recent studies show. Researcher Anne Starling, with the Colorado School of Public Health, presented the findings during a virtual meeting Tuesday that focused on early results from a multi-site forever chemical study with more than 1,000 participants from the Fountain Valley.

“Timeliness of care makes a big difference in outcomes,” said Dr. Evelinn Borrayo, associate director in the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor in the Department of Community & Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, who leads the five-year trial. “Timely treatment improves survivorship, quality of life and mental health.”

The Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) has been ranked #16 by U.S. News & World Report for graduate programs in public health. The rankings were announced publicly on April 9. Previously, ColoradoSPH had been ranked #17. As a newer school of public health, founded in 2008, ColoradoSPH, has risen steadily through the ranks from #35 to #16 in just 15 short years. The rankings of more than 200 schools and programs of public health are based on expert opinions about program excellence and other statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research, and students.

“People need to be aware that their risk associated with drinking PFAs in drinking water is still likely quite low, given we don’t have those high, high levels of contamination. The EPA standard is designed to really take that down to be most protective of public health,” said Ned Calonge, associate dean for public health practice, and a professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health.

Kristine Burrows has dedicated a big chunk of her young life to old age. She earned a master’s degree with a focus on leadership and healthy aging from the Colorado School of Public Health in 2018, launched a statewide day program for older adults with disabilities through the Lakewood chapter of national nonprofit Easterseals, and eventually worked as director of aging, care, and connections for the Jewish Family Service of Colorado. 

U.S. Representatives Brittany Pettersen and Jason Crow are leading a group of Colorado Representatives urging the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to continue funding the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center (RMPRC), which resides within the Colorado School of Public Health. It has conducted instrumental public health research in the region for nearly 20 years, but the CDC recently decided not to fund the RMPRC for the next five-year funding cycle.

EHN senior news editor Brian Bienkowski sat down with Dr. Anne Starling, winner of the 2023 Lou Guillette Jr Outstanding Young Investigator Award, to discuss her work on PFAS and other toxics, how this has shaped her consumer habits, and where she finds hope.

Experiencing financial hardship or other socioeconomic challenges growing up may change the bacteria that live in the gut, new research among Hispanic adults suggests. The findings could help researchers better understand how some social determinants of health are linked to disease later in life.

Beyond mass shootings, which generate a lot of media and public attention, gun deaths have steadily increased in Colorado for more than a decade, according to the state health department and reflected on the dashboard. During that time, state leaders and community advocates have worked to fight the trend. Now they’re turning to a new avenue — a public health approach to gun violence prevention. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to end its funding for a Colorado center that helps local public health organizations get their programs off the ground and prove they work. Colorado’s Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the director of the CDC this week asking that the agency reconsider cutting funding to the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center.

Between reading, writing, and arithmetic, there are also disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and acts of violence at schools. While school districts have security and drills for these events, educators often have unanswered questions and are left feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Two Anschutz researchers wanted to change that, starting with gathering school staff’s ideas and addressing their questions about safety.

As a toxicologist, Brad Reisfeld, a ColoradoSPH professor at CSU, studies the effects of drugs and environmental contaminants on human health. As part of his work, he relies on various health-related biomarkers, many of which are measured using conventional blood tests. Understanding what common blood tests are intended to measure can help you better interpret the results.

You may think you’re OK to drive an hour or two after you get high on marijuana. Researchers and doctors say you’re not. Pot affects you differently than alcohol, can linger in your system for longer, and it can be harder to figure out when it’s safe to drive. 

Ned Calonge received a Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes those persons whose achievements and contributions are particularly associated with the state and/or nation.

Youth vaping has risen at an unprecedented rate since vaping products were first introduced into the U.S. market in 2007. In 2011, 5% of U.S. high school students reported that they had tried e-cigarettes (i.e., “vaping”). Eight years later, in 2019, 50% of high school students had tried vaping and 7% were vaping every day. Vaping is now more common among adolescents than smoking cigarettes. In 2022, 21% of 12th graders reported having vaped in the past month compared to 4% who smoked. 

Nearly half of Colorado adults live in a home with a gun, but more than one-third of them have never taken a firearms safety class. Those are among the findings of a statewide survey conducted by the Colorado School of Public Health and the state’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The goal was to gather baseline data to help guide efforts to curb gun injuries and deaths, said Erin Kelly, the lead researcher.

Colorado likely will experience a rise in COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses in the coming weeks, but the state isn’t expected to see major challenges to health care capacity. Given the national trajectory, Colorado most likely is entering a period of increasing infections, said Cathy Bradley, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health.

After dropping two Harvard experts who had received industry support, the National Academies turned to a colleague with a similar background to review the cumulative evidence about the relationship between drinking and a wide range of health issues, including obesity, cancer, heart disease, cognitive health and all-cause mortality.

The Colorado Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative, a program active in 30 states, is diligently working to transform employer attitudes and policies regarding mental health and substance abuse. The initiative is led by the Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health, based at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Recovery Friendly Workplace, a nationwide effort currently active in 30 states, is an expanding initiative to protect the mental health of workers while helping workers retain their jobs. In Colorado, the effort is spearheaded through the Center for Health, Work & Environment academic center at the Colorado School of Public Health that advances worker health, safety and well-being. 

December 2023 Newsletter

• Vaccination Centers and COVID-19
• Community Events & Opportunities
• Professional Development & Training
• Employment Opportunities
• Grants & Funding
• Additional Resources

As healthcare leaders rush to implement AI tools, some are questioning whether they’re equipped, both technically and organizationally, to use the technology. According to Arlen Meyers, a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado School of Public Health, and a strategy advisor to MI10, the MIQ tool was used to evaluate dozens of health systems across the country, and found many that hadn’t even met readiness standards yet.

As a dedicated research institution, Colorado State University is well acquainted with the fact that science knows no boundaries. CSU has a long history of research and scientific study with a diverse group of professionals working in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. However, LGBTQIA+ individuals are roughly 20% less represented in the STEM fields than statistically expected.

It’s important to understand how ChatGPT answers questions, noted Matthew DeCamp, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, who wasn’t involved in the study.

We all love the tasty Thanksgiving turkey and scrumptious stuffing. But safe to say no one wants to bring COVID-19 home with the leftovers. Ugh, right? But all the key coronavirus indicators in Colorado are pointing toward a rise in cases, and hospitalizations are as high as they’ve been since the start of 2023, with millions of thousands of Coloradans gathering and traveling over the holidays. 

In this newsletter: vaccination centers and COVID-19; community events and opportunities; professional development and training; employment opportunities; grants and funding; and additional resources.

For Jess Hegstrom, suicide prevention coordinator for Lewis and Clark County, Montana,  the greatest gifts we can give to people struggling with suicide are time and space between their thoughts and their firearms.

In the late 1960s, natural gas utilities launched "Operation Attack," a bold marketing campaign to bring lots more gas stoves into people's kitchens. The gas utilities called Operation Attack their "most ambitious advertising and merchandising program ever." But as it got underway, concerns were becoming public about indoor pollution from gas stoves, including household levels of nitrogen dioxide.

Colorado’s COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising again, but it’s not clear if they’ll stay at roughly this level or continue to increase as the weather gets colder. Hospitalizations have been slowly increasing since early August, but jumped more noticeably in the last two weeks, from 131 people hospitalized for the virus in Colorado on Sept. 19 to 195 on Monday — the highest total since mid-March.

Dr. Ned Calonge, associate dean for public health practice in the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, has investigated the health effects of PFAS. A 2022 report he collaborated on found a strong link between PFAS and kidney cancer, and more moderate association with breast and testicular cancer.

In this newsletter: vaccination centers and COVID-19; community events and opportunities; professional development and training; employment opportunities; grants and funding; and additional resources.

In this newsletter: vaccination centers and COVID-19; community events and opportunities; professional development and training; employment opportunities; grants and funding; and additional resources.

For teachers, preparing for an emergency such as an active shooter at school can be anxiety-provoking and overwhelming. A new research-based training aims to ease some of the anxiety by incorporating mental health support into the drills.

In this newsletter: vaccination centers and COVID-19; community events and opportunities; professional development and training; employment opportunities; grants and funding; and additional resources.

ColoradoSPH researcher Daniel Pastula, MD, MHS, shares valuable insight on West Nile virus, best strategies for recovery, and the potential disease caseload for this year.

With wildfire season upon us, cities across the United States are being urged by health officials to stay inside, but even indoor air can be hazardous. “There are two general ways to decrease your exposure to wildfire smoke – breathe less or breathe cleaner air." Mike Van Dyke, PhD, gives tips on how to keep your indoor air clean when under an air quality alert.

It wasn’t until last spring that Charlene Dionio’s father was hospitalized by poisonous after-effects of Hurricane Ida, which swept from Louisiana through New England the previous fall, killing more than 100 in the United States, including 29 in New Jersey.

The California Air Resources Board recently announced the 2022 winners of the Haagen-Smit Clean Air Awards. Dean Samet received the award for his work in environmental health research, with extensive and steady landmark contributions to the understanding of the health impacts of both outdoor and indoor air pollution.

A measure by Colorado Democrats proposing to conduct a study of a statewide publicly financed or universal healthcare system with direct compensation to providers failed in this year’s legislative session, which ended on May 8th. House Bill 1209 called for the Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) to administer the policy analysis and development for a publicly funded and privately delivered universal healthcare payment system alongside a state task force. 

The study, led by Kathy James, ColoradoSPH associate professor, focuses on arsenic in private drinking wells in San Luis Valley groundwater, which she says has been gradually increasing in drinking wells over the past 50 years.

The statement, co-authored by Dana Dabelea, an endowed professor and director of the LEAD Center, highlights the need for future endocrine research to address health disparities in pediatric populations and among sexual and gender minoritized individuals.

The number of people impacted by gun violence in Colorado is growing. As a Denver Public School parent, Paul Ballenger says the recent shooting at East High School hit home.

Options for firearm storage at gun ranges and retailers is part of the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative, spearheaded by Emmy Betz, a professor of epidemiology and deputy director of the Injury and Violence Prevention Center.

Stephanie Malin is a ColoradoSPH adjunct professor, associate professor at Colorado State University and one of the co-founders and steering members of the Center for Environmental Justice at Colorado State University.

Lower-income Marshall fire victims in Colorado are facing difficulties in rebuilding after the wildfire, with a new study by Assistant Professor of Environmental Katie Dickinson revealing that they are lagging behind due to limited insurance coverage and financial resources.

Dr. Jon Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, said the problem of misinformation isn’t new; the tobacco industry created the playbook for disinformation during its long battle to suppress the truth that smoking kills.

In this newsletter: vaccination centers and COVID-19; community events and opportunities; professional development and training; employment opportunities; grants and funding; and additional resources.

Black and Hispanic children with Type 1 diabetes are more likely than their white peers to develop stiffened arteries, new research finds. "If we can figure out why this difference is, perhaps we can intervene now and maybe there's a chance to reverse the differences that have built up in the first 10 years of their disease," said Katherine Sauder, deputy director of the LEAD center.

One in 4 Colorado teens reported they could get access to a loaded gun within 24 hours, according to survey results published Monday. Nearly half of those teens said it would take them less than 10 minutes. “That’s a lot of access and those are short periods of time,” said ColoradoSPH DrPH candidate Virginia McCarthy, lead author of the study.

In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the CDPHE is teaming up with researchers from the Injury and Violence Prevention Center in the Colorado School of Public Health. They’ll create and maintain a resource bank of regularly updated and accurate materials regarding gun violence in Colorado.

The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research award, given to ColoradoSPH Community and Behavioral Health President Emerita Judith Albino, honors individuals who have given exemplary service by consistently promoting the interests and activities of oral health research to a wide audience.

Both COVID and RSV can result in different types of cough, including dry, wet, wheezing, said Dan Olson, associate of epidemiology, to Fortune. While there is no exact way to differentiate the two conditions without testing, there are some potential tells, experts say.

“We’re sort of at a steady, manageable level for the moment,” said Dean Jon Samet. “It’s too early to say” if the flu is done, he said.

Cases of monkeypox are growing in the US. Daniel Pastula, associate professor of epidemiology, said the vaccine is used in people who've been exposed but aren't yet showing symptoms of monkeypox, because the incubation period for the disease is so long.

There are several reasons trees may boost health, including better air quality, reduced stress and increased physical activity. “Most evidence confirms that tree planting is beneficial in reducing premature mortality,” said David Rojas Rueda, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at CSU.

FunSalud, a research team co-founded by Edwin Austrias, professor of epidemiology, is searching for emerging infectious diseases through mosquitos. "We're trying to focus on pathogens that just happen to be in the blood that the mosquito happened to suck up," says Dan Olson, part of the team and assistant professor of epidemiology.

“I do think that community engagement is a road map for improving public health emergency work in these communities,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, associate dean for public health practice.

"The problem is if we only focus on 'deaths of despair' (mid-life deaths), we ignore and do not have adequate attention paid to the sources that promote health and well-being in Native people," said Spero Manson, director of the Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health, to NPR.

Lili Tenney, assistant professor and director of outreach and programs at the Center for Health, Work & Environment, discusses the rise in Colorado workplace fatalities, mental health struggles, and opioid addiction in the Denver Business Journal.

Determining whether a chemical is carcinogenic is a complex and often controversial process. Dr. Brad Reisfeld, professor of environmental and occupational health at CSU, weighs in on these classifications and how they effect environmental and public health.

“It’s not evenly distributed across the U.S.,” said Beth Carlton, professor of epidemiology. “It’s grown very rapidly in the Northeast, and there’s every reason to think it will do the same when it gets here.”

“I think in terms of the worry that these three infectious respiratory viruses would come together and surge in a way that would strain hospital capacity, we've escaped,” said Dean Jon Samet.

Contributing to the Colorado Sun, ColoradoSPH Assistant Program Manager Daniel Martinez, Assistant Professor Heather Kennedy, and Youth Specialist Noah Jansen explore the impact of the Colorado State Board of Education's vote to support the teaching of LGBTQ+ history in Colorado schools.

Contributing to the Colorado Sun, Dean Jon Samet, along with William Burman M.D, explore the successes, failures, and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing how we can be better prepared for the next health emergency.

“We’re continuing to see far more people hospitalized with flu than at this time in a typical year,” said Beth Carlton, associate professor of environmental and occupational health. “I think that’s the big concern for the weeks ahead.”

Because laws are powerful mediators for structural stigma, they are critical levers for antistigma work, according to a new Health Affairs brief co-authored by Daniel Goldberg, associate professor of epidemiology.

“We need to be looking at what's happening every single day in urban communities and across the country, in terms of suicide, if we really wanna look at where the bulk of gun deaths are,” said Emmy Betz, professor of epidemiology and deputy director of the Injury & Violence Prevention Center.

Emmy Betz, professor of epidemiology, deputy director of the Injury and Violence Prevention Center, and the co-founder of the Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition, a group bringing together the firearms industry and public health researchers to prevent gun suicides, is interviewed for the PBS documentary.

“The decrease in the susceptibility of the population as a whole, increase in personal protective behaviors, and the lack of case reporting have caused superspreader events to both be less likely to occur and less likely to be reported,” said Bailey Fosdick, associate professor of biostatistics and informatics.

Approximately 44% of adults with arthritis report arthritis-attributable limitations, but little is known about arthritis among caregivers.

COVID-19 positivity rates have been rising in Colorado since October, but with fewer people being tested, uncertainty remains. Beth Carlton, associate professor of environmental and occupational health and Jude Bayham, assistant professor of epidemiology at CSU, weigh in for the Denver Post.

Given that cases and the percentage of tests coming back positive have been trending up over the last two weeks, it appears that the rise in hospitalizations points to a real increase in infections, said Dean Jon Samet.

The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) recently released “Responding to the Climate Change and Health Crisis: A Framework for Academic Public Health.” The framework will serve as the foundation for ASPPH’s future initiatives and was developed by a task force co-chaired by Dean Jon Samet.

“The bottom line is, what happens this winter depends primarily on the next variant that takes over and also on booster uptake or what proportion of the population gets this bivalent booster,” said Beth Carlton, associate professor of environmental & occupational health.

Talking to more than 50 of his peers and interested public, longtime anti-tobacco giant Dean Jon Samet likened the century long “tobacco pandemic” to the COVID-19 pandemic during a presentation at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Hollings Cancer Center.

“Over the next 12 weeks, we’re pretty confident things will stay low,” said Bailey Fosdick, associate professor of biostatistics and informatics. That doesn’t mean people should treat the virus as a thing of the past, she clarified, emphasizing the importance of vaccinations and boosters.

“The LGBTQ community, particularly men who have sex with men, really stepped up to protect their health and work with public health authorities to get the word out about monkeypox,” Dan Pastula, associate professor of epidemiology said. “I think this would have been way worse without any intervention.”

ColoradoSPH at UNC alum Rudy Vargas, director of the UNC César Chávez Cultural Center, was recently honored in the 40 under 40 for Northern Colorado. The list recognizes 40 emerging business leaders under 40 years of age who are making a mark on their communities through professional success and volunteer activities.

President Biden answered the question of whether the pandemic is over with a clear ‘yes,’ but this is not a black and white issue, said Lisa Miller, adjunct professor of epidemiology. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you call the current situation – COVID-19 still poses a significant, ongoing risk to the world, she reflects.

Two men in the US developed encephalomyelitis — inflammation of the brain and spinal cord — after contracting monkeypox, according to a new report published by the CDC. Lead author and Associate Professor Dan Pastula explains that these cases are rare and should be reported to state, tribal, local, or territorial health departments.

In a time of unprecedented division, rising inequality and intensifying climate change, it’s easy to feel that progress is impossible. Stephanie Malin, assistant professor at CSU, explores how people adapt to crises and thrive in challenging times by working together.

It’s possible that the downward trajectory has paused because kids returned to school and adults went back to their offices, meaning the virus has more chances to spread, said Beth Carlton, associate professor of environmental and occupational health.

As fall approaches, COVID appears to be on a continuous decline in Colorado, defying trends set in the last two years. “Hospitalizations are down. Wastewater levels are down. Percent positivity (of COVID tests) is down. So as we head into the fall, we are in good shape,” said Dean Jon Samet.

"The connection between the lethality of firearms and the risk of suicide death is not something that's been talked about enough," reflects Emmy Betz, professor and deputy director of the Injury and Violence Prevention Center.

If you’re fully vaccinated, the return of polio to parts of the United States is essentially a non-event for you. “If you are unvaccinated, you are vulnerable to paralytic polio anywhere where poliovirus is circulating,” said Daniel Pastula, associate professor of epidemiology.

Unreliable scientific studies can be hard to spot – whether by reviewers or the general public – but by asking the right questions, it can be done, says Lisa Bero, research professor in the Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, who co-authored a study identifying warning signs of fraudulent research.

Katherine Dickinson, ColoradoSPH associate professor of environmental & occupational health, contributed to 1A “Remaking America”, a live discussion to hear how the community is still recovering from the Marshall fire, and what state and local governments can do to become more resilient against climate threats.

The CDC relaxed its COVID guidelines last week, leaving decision-making mainly to individuals who lack public health training. The lack of a coordinated public health response deprioritizes community health and worsens longstanding health disparities Daniel Goldberg, associate professor of epidemiology, explains.