EHSSO Election EHSSO's annual election. Many thanks to current board members for organizing this year's events. Congratulations to the newly elected board members. Faculty Auction On Tuesday April 4, faculty and students participated in the JHSPH school-wide action. Many thanks to those who participated in this event supporting students at the school. An EHSSO student won Dr. Groopman's item: car wash.
Career Seminar Dr. Groopman's annual career seminar for EHSSO was held on Friday, April 21. He gave a job skills talk, hot topic areas we will face in Environmental Health, and how to best prepare for careers in academia vs. government or industry.
B'More Green Bus Tour Thursday March 30th 3-4:30pm, EHSSO's community outreach tour. The tour will be led by Glenn Ross (http://www.baltimoregreens.org/glennross) from Baltimore Greens. "Beyond Research: Using Science in the Government" Vic Edgerton (legislative assistant to Congressman Dennis Kucinich) and Megan Weil Latshaw (Senior Director, Environmental Health Policy at ASTHO, and recent graduate from EHS) spoke about policy making aspect of environmental science. Clothing Drive
EHSSO held a departmental clothing drive (February 20-24). All donations were given to and gratefully accepted by The Women's Housing Coalition (http://www.womenshousing.org). The retreat party, an EHSSO tradition. Students relaxed at Mount Washington Tavern after 2 days of departmental retreat. EHSSO hosted a talk by Dr. Lawrence from the Center for Livable Future. Dr. Lawrence spoke about the unsustainable practice of large scale animal farms and their impact on the environment. EHS Thanksgiving Food Drive was a great success. We delivered a whopping 208 pounds of food to the Maryland Food Bank. "EHS Public Health Response to Hurricane Katrina"- Dr. Kellogg from Environmental Engineering was among the many experts sent to New Orleans to assess the extent of damage from Hurricane Katrina. He presented his research on the local water quality. Sewage Stroll Students enjoyed a leisurely stroll organized by the Jones Falls Association and learnt about Baltimore's ancient sewer system. For decades we in Baltimore have paid some of the lowest water and sewer rates on the East Coast. Because sewer repairs are funded by these rates, our Department of Public Works has been unable to do more than patch over decaying sewer lines, many of which were installed right after the Baltimore Fire of 1904. And because Baltimore uses gravity rather than pumps to move its sewage, the lines end up beside our streams, the lowest area in the topography. And when the lines overflow, they often overflow into our streams. In rainstorms, rainwater invades the sewer lines, overwhelming some and leading to sewage overflows. There are also overflows in dry weather, usually due to a buildup of grease or tree roots. Finally, there are places in the city where sewage is flowing all the time, either because the sources have not been found or because they have not yet been addressed. For this Sewage Stroll we will walk along Stony Run, where one of the older, more decayed sewer lines runs and look at some of the places where sewage has overflowed in recent years. 
 (note: pictures from 2004 stroll)
Race for the Cure. This year's team consisted of 6 members. End of 1st Term pizza party. EHSSO celebrated the end of the first school term with pizza and welcomed a new faculty member Dr. Curriero. EHSSO kicked off the new school year with picnic at Camden Yards. This year the Baltimore O's played against last year's champion Boston Red Sox. Welcome to Baltimore at Max's. EHSSO welcomed new students to the department after orientation events. In conjunction with the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, we put together a lunch seminar featuring Dr. Michael L. Shuler, PhD, Cornell University, Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Chemical Engineering. He gave a talk entitled "Animals on a Chip: Applications to Toxicology." We hosted a lunch seminar featuring the EHS department chair, Dr. John Groopman, who gave a talk on the topics of job skills and an intro to grants and funding. To view the slides from his talk, click here. We co-hosted a roundtable panel on Restoring Scientific Integrity with the Epi Student Organization and the Anna Baetjer Society. This panel featured speakers Lynn Goldman, Peter Rabins, Jon Samet and Susan Sherman. We also participated in the annual Multiple Sclerosis Walk and enjoyed a nice 5K jog on a beautiful April Saturday! EHSSO kicked off the new year with a post-EHS retreat winter party at the Mount Washington Tavern! We also hosted a lunch seminar featuring Dr. Mary Beth Martin from Georgetown University. She gave a talk entitled "Metals- A New Class of Endocrine Disruptors?" EHSSO held a lunch seminar given by Paul A. Locke, JD, DrPH, a visiting scholar in our department. Dr. Locke gave a seminar titled "Environmental Law and Public Health- What's the Connection?" We also coordinated a holiday food drive to assist the Julie Community Center. Donations from the department provided enough food for twelve East Baltimore families this holiday season. EHS students and faculty received a guided tour from Guy Hollyday of the Baltimore Sanitary Sewer Oversight Coalition. We walked along Stoney Run and learned about where sewage has overflowed in recent years. The 17-member Johns Hopkins EHS team for Race for the Cure participated in a Saturday morning 5K run/ walk. Our team brought in over $700 for the cause! Below are a few of us post-race. 
Also, at the end of the month, EHS students celebrated the completion of first quarter with a pizza party! The EHS department enjoyed it's 3rd annual outing to a picnic and an O's game at Camden Yards! EHSSO and the Center for a Livable Future co-sponsored the seminar "Leaky Pipes and Cross Contamination: Is Baltimore's Aging Sewer System A Threat to Public Health?" This lecture featured speakers Guy Hollyday (Chair, Baltimore Sanitary Sewer Oversight Coalition) and Rolf Halden, PhD, PE (Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences). EHSSO hosted a lunch seminar given by Dr. Thomas Hartung, Professor at the University of Konstanz, Germany and head of the European Center for Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) in Ispra, Italy. Dr. Hartung gave a talk entitled "Evidence Based Testing in Toxicology." During our May general meeting, a panel of three JHBSPH alumni joined us to discuss "Life After Graduation." Julie Goodman, PhD, earned her degree in toxicology and is now a post-doctoral fellow at the NIH. Keary Cope also earned his PhD degree in toxicology and is now a post-doctoral fellow at the FDA. Randy Mosebrook, Manger of Safety, Health and Environment at Unilever, completed his MHS in Industrial Hygiene. We welcomed a guest speaker from Oregon Health & Sciences University, Dr. Mary Stenzel-Poore. She presented a talk entitled "Corticotropin Releasing Hormone (CRH) Pathways: Stress and the Road to Recovery." Dr. Larry Needham, chief of the toxicology branch at the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Environmental Health, presented a talk entitled "Development and Use of Biomarkers of Exposure for CDC's National Exposure Report." For additional information, please visit the CDC website. Certified Emergency Response Training (CER-T) events were held in multiple sessions: 1. Introduction to CER-T and Disaster Preparedness Supplies Kit, Family Communication Plan 2. Disaster First Aid I Presented by the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response. 3. Disaster First Aid II Presented by Walter Jones 4. Terrorism Awareness, Dirty Bombs, Light Search and Rescue Presented by Christopher Toscano, MS, graduate student in EHS, American Red Cross Disaster volunteer 5. Dirty Bombs Presented by Dr. Jonathan Links, PhD, professor in EHS 6. Hands-on Fire Extinguisher Training Maryland Fire Equipment, Inc. in Rockville, MD 
Dr. John Groopman, department chair for EHS, gave a presentation on "Strategies for Job Interviewing." To view Dr. Groopman's presentation slides, please click here. | 
