Katharine Hammond, PhD

Research focuses on exposure assessment as it relates to human health; within this broad category there are three major foci: occupational health, environmental health, and secondhand smoke.

Dr. Hammond’s research has been at the intersection of several disciplines, and much of her scientific contribution has involved the ability to move among these disciplines and to bridge them. Her early work focused on the pulmonary effects of exposures to silicon carbide in manufacturing, the carcinogenic potential of diesel exhaust exposures in railroad workers, and the effects of machining fluids in the automobile industry.  She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in tobacco research and in exposure assessment and is considered the world’s leading expert on exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS).  Her initial research led to the development of several methods to measure SHS in the air including both an active and a passive monitor for nicotine.  Her work on two major studies of SHS exposure on commercial airlines led to the banning of cigarette smoking on domestic flights. 

For the last eight years Dr. Hammond has been engaged in a major epidemiological study of children with asthma which evaluates each child’s exposure to myriad chemical and biological agents on a daily basis.  This has lead to further innovative work using pine needles as passive samplers for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).  In May, 2008, Dr. Hammond received the Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor Award from the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute to develop a set of tools to evaluate secondhand smoke exposure of flight attendants on commercial aircraft from 1950 to the present.  Currently Dr. Hammond is continuing a previous study of automotive workers’ exposure to hexane in brake cleaning fluid causing peripheral neuropathy.  This study led the state to issue a warning and manufacturers discontinued the use of hexane in the products.  Her new research will examine persistent peripheral neuropathy, cognitive effects, and reproductive effects in automechanics in the Bay Area.