Take our 2022 Year in Review Quiz

Ready to test your PRHE knowledge?

In less than a minute, see if you can spot trends in environmental health, what PRHE’s been up to over the past year and hints on what to watch in chemical policy in 2023. 

Let’s get started.

Question #1

In a national public opinion survey commissioned by PRHE in 2022, what percentage of Americans agree that the federal government should require products be proven safe before companies are allowed to put them on the market?

1. 38%
2. 49%
3. 56%
4. 92%

The correct answer is a whopping 92%.
Conducted by Lake Research Partners, the survey revealed that keeping people safe from harmful chemicals is a bi-partisan issue.

 

Question #2

Which harmful chemical in everyday products did PRHE release a study on in 2022?

1. Bisphenols (otherwise known as BPA and found in plastics)
2. Melamine (found in dishware, plastics, flooring, kitchen counters, pesticides)
3. Parabens (chemical preservative used in foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals)
4. PBDEs (flame retardant chemicals)
5. Phthalates (chemicals used to make plastics more durable among other uses)

If you answered all of the above, you are correct!
PRHE released multiple studies in the past year on these and many other chemicals. We have also used new methods to identify more chemicals than have previously been identified in people and have several studies underway exploring how these harmful chemicals are linked to health problems, chronic illnesses, and reproductive health challenges.

 

Question #3

Which PRHE study ranked #1 in Altmetric for news coverage and social media mentions out of over 11,000 other studies?

1. An NIEHS Environmental Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) funded study
2. A study we led in partnership with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
3. A study published in the August 30, 2022 journal Chemosphere
4. A study on melamine in pregnant women

You can’t get this one wrong because all the answers are correct!
Read some of the coverage about our study with Drs. Jessie Buckley and Giehae Choi of Johns Hopkins on MSN and Today.

 

 

Question #4

How many papers are being released as part of PRHE’s Science Action Network (SANHE) Roadmap to Chemical Policy Reform?

1. 2
2. 3
3. 5

Our SANHE will release scientific recommendations to make U.S. decisions about chemicals more science based and health protective in a series of 5 papers that will be published in Environmental Health in early January 2023.
Be sure to sign up for our blog for updates on this important work.

 

Question #5

Did PRHE receive a “Best Paper Award for Environmental Science” in 2022?

1. What is a Best Paper Award?
2. Yes
3. No

The paper, “Suspect Screening, Prioritization, and Confirmation of Environmental Chemicals in Maternal-Newborn Pairs from San Francisco,” from lead co-authors Aolin Wang and Dimitri Abrahamsson, Tracey J. Woodruff, Rachel Morello-Frosch and co-authors, won a “Best Paper Award” from the journal ES&T. The editors said the winners “represent not only their own unique brilliance in presenting some of the best novel, impactful new research but also… the resilience, determination, and humanity of the ES&T community.” 

 

Question #6

What are petrochemicals and how do they impact the climate crisis and reproductive health?

1. That is too big a question for a multiple-choice quiz.
2. To answer that properly, you need to write a peer-reviewed article.
3. Better yet, you need an entire journal devoted to this question.

PRHE contributed to a Special Issue of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics on petrochemicals that will be published in January. Used in fossil fuel extraction or produced from fossil fuels and used in plastics, petrochemicals are a growing part of our work as they leach from products, food, food packaging, and air and water into our bodies. 

 

Question #7

Beware the plastics…PRHE is looking at health effects from microplastic exposure in which of the following systems?

1. Reproductive
2. Digestive
3. Respiratory
4. All of the above

Our Science & Policy Team is wrapping up a systematic review on the health effects of microplastics in partnership with the California State Policy Evidence Consortium (CalSPEC) that will be submitted as part of a larger report to state legislative partners in January. It covers increasing discoveries by researchers about the ways that microplastics are harming health.

 

Question #8

Did PRHE map evidence on how air pollutants influence the susceptibility to and severity of respiratory viruses like COVID?

1. No way, PRHE had enough on its plate in 2022!
2. Yes. PRHE developed an evidence map to track the latest research on how environmental risk factors may increase COVID risk.
3. How many people work at PRHE again?

Yes is correct!
Created to support the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)’s work in this area, PRHE developed an online, interactive Systematic Evidence Map (SEM) showing the human evidence currently available between exposure to 11 chemicals in pesticides, PFAS, and phthalates and respiratory outcomes.

 

Question #9

Which harmful substance did EPA make significant progress in banning in part due to PRHE’s work?

1. Asbestos
2. Methylene chloride
3. PFAS
4. How do you define “significant progress”?

After EPA failed to ban the deadly chemical methylene chloride, PRHE led a study that revealed workers remained at serious risk. The Agency is now poised to update its rule on methylene chloride and has acknowledged the risks the chemical poses to workers.

 

Question #10

How did PRHE hold EPA accountable for its implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2022?

1. Drafted and submitted 5 public comments
2. Met with EPA leadership 3 times
3. Published an analysis (and rebuttal) on how TSCA implementation has failed to protect vulnerable populations
4. Generated numerous media stories challenging EPA to use the “best available science”
5. All of the above

All of the above again.
…and now we promise no more “all of the above” answers.

 

 

 

Question #11

How many pregnant people is PRHE trying to recruit for our DREAM study?

1. 200
2. 2,800
3. 6,700
4. 10,000

The correct answer is 10,000!
Our DREAM study is examining the long-term health implications of harmful chemical exposures in our environment, including increasing risk of cancer. We are recruiting pregnant people who live in San Francisco and surrounding counties or Fresno and surrounding counties. If you know someone who might want to help scientists learn more about how chemicals in our homes, air, food, water, and products affect pregnancy and child development, they can sign up here: https://prhe.ucsf.edu/join-our-research

 

Question #12

Which social media channel did PRHE join in 2022?

1. Instagram
2. Mastodon
3. Post
4. TikTok

You can now follow PRHE on Instagram @UCSF_PRHE!

Question #13

Did you have fun taking this survey?

1. This is your definition of fun?
2. Yes, this was a creative way to share your work for the year.
3. Ahem, someone has been working remotely for too long.

Only you know the correct answer to this one.

 

Question #14

Last question! Who are we most thankful for?

1. PRHE collaborators
2. PRHE communicators
3. PRHE community research coordinators
4. PRHE funders
5. PRHE managers
6. PRHE operations staff
7. PRHE Science Action Network members
8. PRHE supporters
9. You!

We’re pretty sure we don’t have to tell you the answer to this one!
An enormous thank you to everyone who makes PRHE’s work possible.
We wish you peace, happiness, health equity, and environmental justice as we work to reduce harmful chemicals and pollutants in 2023.