![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081109131402im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Thailand Honors STAR Grantee
Additional Profiles
(January, 2005) In January, EPA STAR grantee Jonathan M. Samet, MD, MS, traveled to the Grand Palace of Bangkok to receive the 2004 Prince Mahidol Award
in Public Health from the King of Thailand. The Prince Mahidol Award in Public Health is granted internationally to an individual or institution for an “outstanding contribution in the field of public health for the sake of the well-being of peoples.” Dr. Samet was selected for this year’s award in recognition of his research on air pollution and human health, which has served as the basis for regulatory guidelines in the United States and other countries.
The Prince Mahidol Award was established in honor of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Songkla for his “exemplary contribution toward progress and advancement in the fields of medicine, public health, and social sciences.” The King of Thailand selects two recipients each year: one in medicine and the other in public health. Each award includes a medal, a certificate, and a $50,000 prize.
Dr. Samet is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research interests include the health effects of air pollutants in the general environment and in the workplace. Dr. Samet has also focused on the health implications of active and passive smoking. As a clinician specializing in internal medicine and susceptibility to pulmonary diseases and as a trained epidemiologist, Dr. Samet’s research has helped to elucidate the relationship between air pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM), cigarette smoke and radon, and adverse health outcomes.
The EPA STAR program is currently funding Dr. Samet and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins to investigate "Chronic and Acute Exposure to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter and Other Air Pollutants: National Cohort Studies of Mortality and Morbidity." In this study, he is evaluating the effects of long-term exposure to PM on morbidity and mortality. This is an area with many uncertainties. Dr. Samet will take advantage of large, existing databases, established by federal agencies, to address the following questions: (1) Does long-term exposure to PM increase morbidity and mortality? (2) Do the effects of PM vary depending on exposure to other pollutants? (3) Are people with heart and lung disease at greater risk for negative health consequences compared with healthy adults?
In addition, Dr. Samet will use the daily exposure data from these cohorts to compare the effects of PM at several different times, ranging from daily to yearly. He will then explore how spatial variation influences the effects of air pollutants. Lastly, Dr. Samet will develop a protocol for the future use of these studies for tracking public health risks associated with air pollution.
Dr. Samet, with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Drs. Francesca Dominici and Scott Zeger, recently completed a project funded by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), a partnership between EPA and the automotive industry. The project was entitled “The National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study: Methods and Methodologic Issues.” In this study, Dr. Samet addressed the relationship between PM and mortality at local, regional, and national levels, and answered questions related to previous research that indicated a relationship between daily levels of PM and mortality rates. Specifically, he sought to determine whether observed associations could be attributed to other pollutants, to bias in exposure measurements, or to mortality displacement. Mortality displacement is a phenomenon in which people who are dying succumb a few days earlier than they normally would have because of an external factor. In this case, the external factor is PM exposure.
As a result of this study, Dr. Samet refuted criticism claiming that error in exposure measurements was responsible for the relationship between daily levels of PM and mortality rates. He also determined that more than short-term mortality displacement was responsible for the relationship. Therefore, his research provided additional evidence for the deleterious effects of PM on human health.
Previously, HEI funded two other studies by Dr. Samet. He was the PI on “Nitrogen Dioxide and Respiratory Illness in Children,” and a co-PI on “Noninvasive Methods for Measuring Ventilation in Mobile Subjects.”
In addition to being Chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Dr. Samet is Director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control and Co-Director of the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute. Before joining the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, he was Professor and Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division in the Department of Medicine at the New Mexico School of Medicine.
Dr. Samet is the recipient of many awards, honors, and appointments. He was Chair of the National Research Council Committee (NRC) on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter from 1998 to 2004 and is currently the Chair of the NRC Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. Dr. Samet has served on the EPA Science Advisory Board and was Chairman of the NRC Biolological Effects of Ionizing Radiation Committee V1. He is Editor of Epidemiology and past Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology. Dr. Samet was Consulting Editor and Senior Editor for the 1985, 1986, and 1990 Reports of the Surgeon General on Smoking and Health, for which he received the Surgeon General’s Medallion in 1990. He was Senior Scientific Editor for the 2004 report on active smoking and is editing the 2005 report on passive smoking. In 1997, Dr. Samet was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Samet received an AB in chemistry and physics from Harvard University in 1966. He earned an MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1970, and an MS in epidemiology from Harvard University in 1977. Dr. Samet is the author or coauthor of over 230 journal articles, 130 book chapters, 140 editorials, and 140 editorials, commentaries, and book reviews. He has served as editor for 17 books and monographs.
For more information about the award, see:
http://www.jhsph.edu/PublicHealthNews/articles/Samet_Mahidol.html.
For more information, contact Estella Waldman at waldman.estella@epa.gov.