Tom Kovesi, Research Institute Pediatric Respirologist of Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). His expertise in indoor air quality and mold connected him with Dr. Additionally, he is an elected member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association. He currently serves on the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology committee producing practice parameters for environmental allergens. Miller has served on many national and international committees regarding built environment mold and dampness. And I thought, ‘that’s either completely wrong, or there’s something we don’t understand.’ The short answer is, it was true.” The mechanism took over 20 years to find, but this information has allowed the guidelines used in industrial hygiene, public health and more recently for clinicians to better advise their patients. “They take a long time, but they’re important, and that’s the challenge that I’m interested in.” Miller recalled epidemiological data that emerged in Canada in 1989/90 that showed that children who lived in moldy houses would be more likely to develop allergies to everything “and that made no sense, so no one believed it. Miller is interested in large unanswered questions that are important to public health. Miller’s long-term fundamental interest in fungal metabolites applies to various ecosystems and populations, including people, animals, and insects, as related to mortality, morbidity, or increasing allergic response, “it’s all the same : what are the chemicals that these fungi make, and what do they do?” It is time to put the existing knowledge and technology into action to control mycotoxin food contamination in low-income countries.” In an interview with Carleton University, Miller stated that, “improving mycotoxin control could have a far-reaching health benefit. The working group published recommendations to reduce exposure in developing countries in the report Mycotoxin Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Exposure to mycotoxins much above regulatory guidelines substantially increases mortality and morbidity, and can cause acute poisoning, cancer, and, most recently noted, is a contributor to stunted growth in children of affected populations. Miller chaired a working group of world-leading experts convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) who recently published on critical health complications from exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisin- both are mycotoxins produced by molds. Mycotoxin contamination of crops has a very large economic consequence to the agri-food systems, and particularly in developing countries has very important public health implications. Miller’s interests in fungal metabolites further intensified during his graduate studies, as he examined interference competition “why some fungi don’t get along why some appear and some don’t, or why some result in animal morbidity.” Subsequently, while completing his postdoctoral work, Miller was offered a job at Agriculture Canada where he led the Fusarium mycotoxin program, examining toxins growing in the Canadian grain systems-“and that really matters,” Miller emphasizes. Miller attributes the other two elements to exceptional organic chemistry training, and introduction to inspiring mycologist Norman Whitley while pursuing his undergraduate at the University of New Brunswick. Miller identifies three elements that founded his interests in fungal metabolites, starting with an early introduction to fungal metabolites in what his father’s job (chemist and brew-master at Moosehead Breweries in Saint John). Before he participated in or chaired expert panels of the WHO, the US FDA, AIHA, AAAAI, or the World Bank before he partnered with Health Canada and Environment Canada to establish health policy and much before he became a Professor and NSERC Research Chair at Carleton in 2000. J David Miller tries to identify where it all started. In his chemistry departmental office at Carleton University, Prof.
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