Hairdressers are continually exposed to a mixture of chemicals, some of which have been linked to adverse effects, like endocrine disruption, and respiratory and cardiometabolic effects. Still, exposure studies in hairdressers are sparse, focused mainly on a limited number of airborne contaminants. Additionally, little is known about chemical exposures among hairdressers of color who may experience elevated exposures due to use of unique products and provision of select services marketed to women of color. This presentation will address findings from an ERC-funded pilot study that aimed to assess workplace chemical exposures among hairdressers of color via indoor air sampling and biomonitoring.
Presenters
Lesliam Quirós-Alcalá, PhD, MS
Dr. Quirós-Alcalá is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Quirós-Alcalá was an Assistant Professor at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health at the University of Maryland. She holds a BSc in Biomedical Engineering and a MSc in Health Protection Engineering from Texas A&M University. Dr. Quirós-Alcalá received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California (UC) at Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, she also worked at the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health (CERCH) where she worked on exposure and epidemiologic cohort studies. She also conducted her postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley’s CERCH, where she gained skills in GIS and environmental epidemiology, and helped develop a mobile application to improve exposure assessment methods for a birth cohort study in South Africa. Her current research focuses on characterizing environmental exposures to endocrine disrupting agents in consumer products and evaluating their potential health effects in vulnerable, underrepresented and understudied populations, including children, occupational populations, women of reproductive age, and low-income populations.