Faculty Profile - Doug Brugge | Department of Public Health Sciences

Douglas M. Brugge, Ph.D., M.S.
Professor and Chair
brugge@uchc.edu
Occupational & environmental health

I am a professor in and chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences having taken that role in 2019 after spending 25 years at Tufts University. My teaching and research interests are in environmental and occupational health. In the last 12-15 years most of my research, and all my extramurally funded work, has been about traffic-related ultrafine particles and their effect on the health of people living near highways. My projects have been community engaged or participatory and have sought to communicate our knowledge to communities, develop interventions and influence policy and practice to reduce risk from this toxin. Other areas of continued interest include uranium mining, especially in Indigenous communities, nuclear power, asthma, research ethics, and indoor pollutants. A favorite activity for me outside of work is photography, which I have done since I was in college. In the last few years I have refined my technique to take “reflection photos”, one of which is shown here to give you an idea and suggest that I might actually have a sense of humor.

Publications

Background

Links

Brugge D, Fuller C eds., Ambient Combustion Ultrafine Particles and Health. Nova Science Publishers, 2021.

Brugge D, Ron S. There is a need for policy and practice responses to transportation-related ultrafine particle exposure. Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Boston, MA, June, 2021

My research and teaching are in occupational and environmental health. for the last 15 years or so my primary focus and most of my funding have been on traffic-related air pollution and, specifically, ultrafine particles and their effects on cardiovascular health. Studies I have led were among the first to show that long term exposure to ultrafines affects health biomarkers. We were also early to begin studying the potential benefits of in-home air purifiers for near highway residents. Other areas of my research have included asthma in public housing and among Chinese immigrant children, uranium mining in Native American and other communities, secondhand smoke and methods and ethics of community engagement in research.