Solvent Exposure Graduate Internship - Public Health - Seattle & King County

LOCATION: Seattle, WA

CLOSING DATE: February 10, 2023

OPPORTUNITY TYPE: Job

JOB #: 19268

POSTED: January 10, 2023

Description:

This position will be located in the Research Services Team, which provides scientific support for programs across the Haz Waste Program and conducts research on emerging health issues. This intern’s assignment reflects an important need and priority in the Haz Waste Program: to better evaluate exposure to hazardous solvents used in degreasing operations and identify safer alternatives.

The Haz Waste Program’s Businesses Services team is currently gauging interest among business owners and workers to participate in this study and several shops have expressed willingness to participate. The study will use state-of-the-art exposure assessment methods in collaboration with faculty at the University of Washington and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the University of Memphis.

The intern will be mentored principally by PhD-level Environmental Scientists (Drs. Steve Whittaker and Katie Fellows) and University of Washington faculty members (Drs. Diana Ceballos and Judith Marsillach). The intern will also receive guidance and training from Haz Waste Program staff on the Businesses Service team (Justin Meyer and Sue Hamilton), in addition to others with expertise in community engagement, environmental policy, social science, and communications.

The specific learning objectives will be to gain competence in the following areas:

  1. Conducting literature reviews and maintaining retrieved materials in a bibliographic database;
  2. Hazard evaluation of industrial chemicals;
  3. Familiarity with state-of-the-art exposure assessment techniques;
  4. Understanding human subjects protection principles and preparing Institutional

Review Board procedures;

  1. Effective and equitable engagement of communities using the principles outlined in King County’s Equity and Social Justice agenda and the Haz Waste Program’s Service Equity process; and
  2. Describing project methods and findings in a coherent report and presentations.

Work will be conducted primarily off-site at University of Washington and in the field at small businesses.

The essential duties for this position are:

  1. Conduct literature reviews and maintain retrieved materials in a bibliographic database;
  2. Use hazard evaluation software to determine the relative toxicities of degreaser ingredients (Scivera, Green Screen, etc.);
  3. Help develop and implement exposure assessment techniques, including 1)

Characterizing VOC concentrations in full-shift air and changes across the shift for blood and urine before and after the intervention, and (2) Profiling blood albumin VOC adductomic signatures via mass spectrometry to establish exposure-health outcome relationships;

  1. Undertake IRB training and prepare an IRB application to cover personal breathing zone exposure measurements and collection of human tissue samples;
  2. Help engage communities using the principles of equity and social justice, with particular emphasis on delivering service to refugees and immigrant populations; and
  3. Summarize the project work in a written report and help prepare oral and poster presentations.

Non-essential duties include:

  1. Job Shadowing
  2. Receive mentoring from other division programs through job shadowing and other assignments relevant to the internship learning experience.
  3. Develop relevant technical skills through self-learning or King County trainings

(e.g., ArcGIS, PowerBI)The intern will be responsible for the following body of work:

  1. Conduct literature reviews and maintain retrieved materials in a bibliographic database;
  2. Use hazard evaluation software to determine the relative toxicities of degreaser ingredients (Scivera, Green Screen, etc.);
  3. Help develop and implement exposure assessment techniques, including 1) Characterizing VOC concentrations in full-shift air and changes across the shift for blood and urine before and after the intervention, and (2) Profiling blood albumin VOC adductomic signatures via mass spectrometry to establish exposure-health outcome relationships;
  4. Undertake IRB training and prepare an IRB application to cover personal breathing zone exposure measurements and collection of human tissue samples;
  5. Help engage communities using the principles of equity and social justice, with particular emphasis on delivering service to refugees and immigrant populations; and
  6. Summarize the project work in a written report and help prepare oral and poster presentations.

Additional opportunities for the student include:

  1. Job Shadowing
  2. Receive mentoring from other division programs through job shadowing and other assignments relevant to the internship learning experience.
  3. Develop relevant technical skills through self-learning or King County trainings (e.g., ArcGIS, PowerBI)

The Haz Waste Research team has the budget to support this position to the maximum allowable hours (900)

 

How to Apply:

Interested students should reach out directly to Steve Whittaker at Steve.Whittaker@kingcounty.gov and Katie Fellows at kfellows@kingcounty.gov.