Dean Philip Nasca and Michael S. Bloom, assistant professor in the school’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, traveled to Romania in early July to present an introductory course on epidemiological methods and to participate in a conference on the management and remediation of contaminated sites. Drs. Nasca and Bloom presented the two and one-half day course, Introduction to Epidemiology, to a group of 40 faculty and staff of the Babes-Bolyai University and the Iuliu Hatietganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca. Dr. Nasca and Dr. Bloom also presented lectures to research scientists from the Center for Oncology in Cluj-Napoca and at the First Annual Romanian Conference on Management and Remediation of Contaminated Sites held in Bucharest. At the Center for Oncology, Dr. Nasca presented on Cancer Research at the University at Albany. At the Romanian Conference, Dr. Nasca spoke about Global Health in the 21st Century and Dr. Bloom presented An Introduction to Environmental Epidemiology: What it is and Where it ‘fits’ in.

Since 2012, Dr. Bloom has led an epidemiologic study of arsenic in drinking water supplies and reproductive outcomes in western Romania. The study is being conducted in collaboration with faculty of Babes-Bolyai University and is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and focuses on the correlation between low to moderate levels of inorganic arsenic (iAs) in drinking water and spontaneous abortion of clinically-recognized pregnancies. Click here to read more about this study. (http://www.albany.edu/news/18240.php)