Evelyn O Talbott

My areas of expertise are in cardiovascular and environmental epidemiology and I have authored over 220 peer reviewed articles and book chapters devoted to the subjects. I am a fellow of the American Heart Association and the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention. 

As an environmental epidemiologist with more than 35 years of experience, my work has centered upon both case-control as well as cohort studies involved with chronic and acute health effects of ambient air pollution (PM2.5 and air toxics). From 2005 until 2014, I was the director of one of five CDC Academic Centers for Excellence in Environmental Public Health Tracking at the University of Pittsburgh. I have been the major advisor and mentor to over 100 doctoral and masters’ students in this area and a founding member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.  I served as its secretary treasurer for four years. I conducted the Three Mile Island Follow-up study, the only 20-year cancer mortality and incidence cohort study in follow-up of 31,000 individuals exposed following the Three Mile Island Nuclear accident (1979- 1999) which occurred on March 29, 1979. (EHP, 2000, 2003).  

For the last 15 years my focus is largely in studying the relationship of environmental and occupational exposures and the risk of neurodegenerative/neurodevelopmental disorders such as childhood autism, dementia, as well as ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a disease fatal disease with few identified risk factors. I serve as the PI on a retrospective cohort investigation using the Women’s Health Initiative cohort of 161,000 women considering long-term exposure to PM constituents and other air toxics and risk of  ALS.  I continue to complete work on an NIEHS investigation, Identification and Characterization of Potential Environmental Risk Factors for ALS Using the ATSDR ALS Registry Cases and a Control Population. The aim of this investigation is to utilize the ATSDR/ALS registry to conduct a case control study of environmental and personal risk factors for ALS. Most recently, I have also collaborated on a Pennsylvania Department of Health study on the Health Effects of Unconventional Gas Development in SW Pennsylvania. I remain involved with the CDC in their ALS registry and in the investigation of occupation and residential pesticide exposure and risk of ALS.