Academic Report of College of Agricultural Sciences

In a recent study led by Paul Jepson, director of OSU’s Integrated Plant Protection Center, researchers surveyed crop production in five African countries, and found a number of health and environmental concerns due to inefficient pesticide usage. The researchers are sharing their findings in an effort to educate the farmers on safe and sustainable application practices.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/release/2014/02/osu-finds-widespread-pesticide-risks-west-africa

Team-Tox, in Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, provides professional development beyond the formal EMT curriculum. In 2014, Team-Tox set up grade-school level demonstrations, experiments, and resources for teachers, reaching over 700 K-12 students.

•  Received an EPA grant to conduct the first-ever comprehensive in vivo toxicity studies of flame retardants.
•  Recognized in Toxicological Sciences for their ground-breaking work using the embryonic zebrafish model to  evaluate the 1,060 compounds identified as hazardous by the EPA.
•  Received EPA grant to study System toxicological approaches to define flame retardant adverse outcome pathways

http://emt.oregonstate.edu/roberttanguay

Funded by the OSU Superfund Research Program and led by environmental chemist Staci Simonich, a recent study discovered that emission control systems added to a Portland General Electric plant in 2011—which targeted mercury—inadvertently lowered dangerous airborne PAHs.

http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/superfund/2015/07/08/mercury-scrubbers-at-oregon-power-plant-lower-other-pollution-too/

A five-year, $5 million grant, funded by the EPA, has enabled OSU’s National Pesticide Information Center to expand its online services. Last year the website had 1.8 million visitors, with 32 million overall hits, and the hotline handled 17,000 phone calls, offering information in over 170 languages.

http://portlandtribune.com/fgnt/36-news/221635-82155-osu-expands-pesticide-info-program