Boonshoft School of Medicine expert tapped to evaluate EPA’s effort to address lead exposure in buildings

Naila Khalil, assistant professor of community health at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Center for Global Health.

Adults and children are exposed to lead and its associated health risks following renovation, repair and painting activities in public and commercial buildings, a Wright State University assistant professor told an EPA peer review panel.

Because of her extensive research on lead, Naila Khalil, Ph.D., assistant professor of community health at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Center for Global Health, was invited to be one of 12 scientific and academic professionals to evaluate the Environmental Protection Agency’s Approach for Estimating Exposures and Incremental Health Effects from Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings.

In addition to Khalil, the peer reviewers included researchers and experts from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rutgers University, University of Texas, Arlington, Harvard School of Public Health and the California Environmental Protection Agency, among other organizations.

“It was an honor to be selected to serve on a peer review panel that was involved in evaluating the scientific basis of EPA’s approach,” said Khalil, who is a physician and holds an M.P.H. from Pakistan, where she was the national program manager for environmental health, a collaborative effort with the World Health Organization. “To my knowledge this approach is the first of its kind that offers plausible adverse health effect estimates due to lead paint exposure of adults and children. These projected results could be used in public health decision making.”

Khalil serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Family Medicine & Community Health and as a reviewer for Environmental Health Perspectives and British Medical Journal.