Avian/bird flu

William Nazaroff
Professor of environmental engineering
Chair of the Energy and Resources Group
Phone: (510) 642-1040
E-mail: nazaroff@ce.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 scyang@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Air movement and pollutant dispersion in indoor environments; characterization and control of air pollutant exposures to help control human health effects from air pollutant exposures; interactions between pollutants and surface materials; air quality aboard commercial planes.

Nazaroff was a member, along with UC Berkeley Professor Ira Tager, of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Air Quality in Passenger Cabins of Commercial Aircraft. The committee released a report in December 2001 calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to monitor the air quality on commercial aircraft and to re-evaluate its regulations on cabin air quality. He can discuss how ventilation works on an aircraft as it relates to the risk of transmission of an airborne infectious disease. "The bottom line is that the risk of transmission is not large if you are not seated close to an infectious person," he said.

Arthur Reingold, MD
Professor and head of the Division of Epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health
Phone: (510) 642-0327
E-mail: reingold@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 scyang@berkeley.edu
 
Expertise: Reingold heads the California Emerging Infections Program, a joint program with state and local health departments, and is the principal investigator for the CDC grant funding the Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness based at UC Berkeley. Reingold can talk about all aspects of infectious diseases: health risks, challenges of detecting outbreaks, and safety precautions.
 
 
Lee W. Riley, MD
Professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health
Phone: (510) 642-9200
E-mail: lwriley@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 scyang@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Field epidemiology and international health; molecular mechanisms of drug-resistant pathogens. He can discuss the common means of transmission for the avian flu, including airborne transmission and direct contact with an infected person.