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Environmental Health Professor Receives $50,000 from United States Air Force


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The United States Air Force is interested in the University of Georgia, and it's not for recruitment.

Jeffrey Fisher, professor of Environmental Health of the College of Public Health and director of the Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program, received $50,000 from the Henry Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine to study health risks of trichloroethylene.

 

"The chemical, TCE, is transformed by enzymes in or body to several metabolites that are thought be the bad actors (and) possibly responsible for cancer," Fisher said. "I hope to be able to provide technical information about the role of selected break-down products of trichloroethylene in the body that contributes to its health risks when ingested."

The two metabolites, dichloroacetic acid and chloral hydrate, of my interest are found in water supplies from using chlorine to disinfect water supplies, Fisher said. Dichloroacetic acid is also an experimental drug for terminally ill children and chloral hydrate is used in pediatric dentistry in addition to a sedative, he said.

"I am developing physiological models of how dichloroacetic acid and chloral hydrate are further metabolized in humans for eventual use as a risk assessment of TCE," Fisher said.

With more than 20 years of experience working with the chemical, Fisher said he was glad to have the opportunity, especially with the USAF.

"I find working with federal laboratory scientists invigorating," Fisher said. "I love discussions about scientific issues related to health risk assessment and science."


For more information, please contact Pearman Parker at CPHpublicrelations@gmail.com.

 



Contact Information

Jeffrey W. Fisher
Environmental Health Science
jwfisher@uga.edu