Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS)

The Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) provides the Queensland Government with timely, accurate and up-to-date advice regarding environmental health risks. It operates as a whole-of-university centre to provide the Department of Health and the state’s Hospital and Health Services to a broad range of scientific and academic environmental health experts to ensure government policy and advice reflects the latest scientific findings. QAEHS progresses a systematic program of research across a range of areas, including:

Environmental health toxicology
Emerging environmental health risks
Environmental health risk assessment
Environmental health risk communication
Environmental health microbiology
Environmental health epidemiology
Education and professional development
Environmental determinants of infectious diseases

Associate Professor Jason Ferris of ISSR leads research in the area of environmental health epidemiology to advance our understanding of how physical, chemical, biological, social and economic factors affect human health. It includes research on the spatial and temporal patterns of methamphetamine in Queensland wastewater that aims to identify hotspots of drug use and pharmacy non-compliance and inform targeted harm minimisation and prevention activities.

Aims

Support the Queensland Government to influence the research agenda in the field of environmental health science
Build the capacity of key Queensland Government personnel to assess and manage risks to human health from environmental threats
Encourage ongoing innovation and research in the environmental health science field

Project team

Professor Kevin Thomas (QAEHS Director) - Project leader
Dr Philip Bond
Associate Professor Jason Ferris
Associate Professor Kelly Fielding
Associate Professor Coral Gartner
Professor Jochen Mueller
Professor Jack Ng
Associate Professor Linda Selvey

Project details

Duration: 2015 - 2018

Partners: Queensland Department of Health

Funding: Queensland Department of Health

Contact: Associate Professor Jason Ferris (j.ferris@uq.edu.au)

ISSR ref: ISSR061161