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A CLASH
OF CULTURE AND CLEANUP
MICHAEL MOORE / MRPIX.COM
DECADES OF INDUSTRIAL and urban waste have badly contaminated South Seattle’s
Duwamish waterway, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will determine the
long-awaited, final cleanup plan of this Superfund site later this year.
In the meantime, William Daniel, associate
professor in the School of Public
Health, is working with two community
organizations to conduct a health-impact
assessment of the cleanup. The EPA
cleanup plan will take years to complete
and have an enormous impact on the
health of people who use the Duwamish
River or live nearby.
The assessment will include nutritional
and cultural impacts of fish contamination,
gentrification pressures on local
neighborhoods, and opportunities for local
economic redevelopment. It will help
decision-makers make choices to help
mitigate the risks to those who live and
play around the Duwamish.
“The river will be cleaner but it still will not be completely safe,” Daniel says. “There will
still be advisories that warn people not to catch and eat the fish.”
The assessment is funded by a grant from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust.—Elizabeth Sharpe
DIAGNOSTICS
AT A DISTANCE
CLARE McCLEAN / UW MEDICINE
ALMOST EVERY ADULT has had the experience of feeling terrible, leaving work and driving to a
physician for tests that confirm: “Yes, it’s the flu.” Sometime in the next five years that scenario
may change profoundly because of something called “paper-based diagnostics.”
Paul Yager (right), chair of the UW Bioengineering Department, is principal investigator
on two grants totaling up to $26 million that aim to move diagnostic medicine
away from standard antibody testing to paper. The technique may be especially
beneficial for people in developing countries, where diseases such as malaria and
dengue are widespread and where lab access is limited for many people.
Yager explained that a simple kind of diagnostic tool kit will allow a person to
take their own urine, spit or sputum sample, drop the sample in
a vial and push a button that makes the vial shake. After a few
minutes a pattern of dots or lines will appear on a piece of
paper. The person will capture a picture of the pattern on
a cell phone and then email it to a physician or a lab. UW
researchers are expanding the number
of paper-based tests and working
for results comparable to a fully
equipped laboratories.
UWalum.com/Columns June 2012
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