Environmental and Occupational Health
We provide scientific and technical support to assess factors in our community and work environments that can cause illness or injury.
We perform and assist with literature reviews, jurisdiction scans, assessments of environmental health data, environmental measurements, and environmental health research.
Recent Work
Our People
Rena Chung
Director, Environmental and Occupational Health
Rena Chung leads the departments responsible for the provision of expertise, support and resources in the fields of environmental and occupational health as well as infection, prevention and control. Rena brings more than 15 years of leadership and technical experience in the field of environmental health and has previously served as PHO’s Manager of Toxicology and Exposure Assessment and Director of Environmental and Occupational Health.
Prior to joining PHO, Rena worked in the private sector where she worked in various leadership roles managing teams specializing in human health risk assessment, brownfield redevelopment, environmental permitting and planning and water resources. Rena has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Life Sciences and Environmental Sciences from Queen’s University. Rena is also a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.
Dr. JinHee Kim
Public Health Physician
Areas of expertise:
- surveillance of environmental hazards and exposures
- food safety and risk
- primary care medicine
- land use planning policy
- environmental burden of disease
Dr. Hong Chen
Scientist
Areas of expertise:
- environmental epidemiology
- environmental exposure assessment
- biostatistics
- environmental exposure assessment using geographic information systems (GIS)
2023 wildfire smoke exposure and public health in Ontario: Triangulation of evidence
To address these gaps, we leveraged this wildfire event as a natural experiment to quantify the effect of wildfire smoke exposure on selected respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes across Ontario’s 22 largest health regions (~80% of total population) and will present the results in this PHO Rounds.
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