Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Lisa Rokoff ’09

As a Staff Scientist at Maine Health Institute for Research, Dr. Rokoff focuses on the impact of prenatal and postnatal exposures to environmental toxicants, such as heavy metals, pesticides, and chemicals in consumer and household products, on maternal and child health. These toxicants, also known as Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can be found in food packaging as well as in carpets and furniture. 

 

“Where more concern has come in is there’s a lot of contaminants in the U.S. that they’ve been discovering recently were in water systems – it’s also used in firefighting foam, so if that’s not cleaned up well, it can infiltrate a water system. There are a number of other ways where different manufacturing or industry uses can contaminate water or land, and so there’s been a bunch of studies on PFAS in the last decade…It’s come up more and more as there’s been more of these community contaminations. Then the EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]  last year set standards for certain PFAs in your water so there’s more of an interest.”

 

Her most impactful research was recently published in the the journal of Environmental Science & Technology. This work focuses on PFAS, man-made chemicals used in industry and consumer products that are found in the blood of people worldwide, and how exposure to PFAS during childhood could impact bone health through adolescence in rural Maine. 

 

The study found that childhood PFAS exposures may adversely affect adolescent bone mineral density. However, health lifestyle choices that promote bone strength, like more physical activity and dairy consumption, possibly lessens the effect of PFAS on bone. More research is needed, as it is hoped that this foundational work could better inform clinical health guidance for children living in PFAS contaminated communities.