Photo of Paloma Beamer
Paloma Beamer
Associate Professor, American Indian Studies-GIDP
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Associate Professor, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Associate Professor, Public Health
Primary Department
Community Environment & Policy
Department Affiliations
Community Environment & Policy
BIO5 Institute
(520) 626-0006
pbeamer@email.arizona.edu
Research Interest
Paloma I. Beamer, Ph.D., joined the College of Public Health in 2007 as an assistant professor in Environmental Health Sciences. The central motivation behind her research is in the development of tools that can help provide more robust exposure and dose estimates and improve the demonstration of a relationship between measured environmental concentrations and resulting health effects, particularly amongst children and underserved populations. Currently Dr. Beamer is using both computer modeling and laboratory techniques in her research. She is currently using GIS techniques to assess the risk of wheezing from exposure to traffic pollutants in early childhood. As an expert in micro-activity patterns she is examining the activity patterns of older children and utilizing them to estimate dust ingestion. Dr. Beamer has built a laboratory to characterize exposure and risk of water-borne contaminants. Currently she is using this laboratory to measure the concentration of tricholoethylene in breastmilk and water contaminants in Nogales. Dr. Beamer is also involved field sampling and exposure modeling projects aimed at understanding children's exposures to pesticides in agricultural communities and metals near hazardous waste sites. Dr. Beamer has served as Academic Councilor on the Board of the International Society of Exposure Science. She has been a long time member of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. She has received the "Scientific Technological Achievement Award" from US EPA, "Mentored Quantitative Research Development Award" from NIH, and the "40 under 40" Award from the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Publications

Beamer, P., Beamer, P., Lu, Z., Lu, Z., Wilkinson, S. T., Wilkinson, S. T., Cox, M. L., Cox, M. L., Klimecki, W., Klimecki, W., Lothrop, N. Z., Lothrop, N. Z., Sugeng, A., Sugeng, A., Loh, M. M., & Loh, M. M. (2015). Multimedia Exposures to Arsenic and Lead for Children Near an Inactive Mine Tailings and Smelter Site. Environmental Research. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2015.12.011
BIO5 Collaborators
Paloma Beamer, Walter Klimecki

Environ Res. 2016 Apr;146:331-9. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2015.12.011. Epub 2016 Jan 21.Multimedia exposures to arsenic and lead for children near an inactive mine tailings and smelter site.Loh MM1, Sugeng A2, Lothrop N2, Klimecki W3, Cox M4, Wilkinson ST5, Lu Z6, Beamer PI2.Author information1Department of Community, Environment and Policy, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, P.O. Box 245163, Tucson, AZ 85718, USA. Electronic address: mloh@email.arizona.edu.2Department of Community, Environment and Policy, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, P.O. Box 245163, Tucson, AZ 85718, USA.3Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210207, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.4Hospital Medicine and Outreach, Department of Pediatrics, Diamond Children's Medical Center, The University of Arizona, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.5Superfund Research Program, The University of Arizona, 1110 E. South Campus Dr., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.6BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, 1657 E. Mabel St., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.AbstractChildren living near contaminated mining waste areas may have high exposures to metals from the environment. This study investigates whether exposure to arsenic and lead is higher in children in a community near a legacy mine and smelter site in Arizona compared to children in other parts of the United States and the relationship of that exposure to the site. Arsenic and lead were measured in residential soil, house dust, tap water, urine, and toenail samples from 70 children in 34 households up to 7 miles from the site. Soil and house dust were sieved, digested, and analyzed via ICP-MS. Tap water and urine were analyzed without digestion, while toenails were washed, digested and analyzed. Blood lead was analyzed by an independent, certified laboratory. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between each environmental media and urine and toenails for arsenic and lead. Geometric mean arsenic (standard deviation) concentrations for each matrix were: 22.1 (2.59) ppm and 12.4 (2.27)ppm for soil and house dust (

Ramirez-Andreotta, M. D., Brody, J. G., Lothrop, N., Loh, M., Beamer, P. I., & Brown, P. (2016). Reporting back environmental exposure data and free choice learning. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, 15.
Beamer, P., Lothrop, N. Z., Lu, Z., Ascher, R., Ernst, K. C., Stern, D. A., Billheimer, D. D., Wright, A. L., & Martinez, F. D. (2015). Spatial Clusters of Child Lower Respiratory Illnesses associated with Community-Level Risk Factors. Pediatric Pulmonology, DOI: 10.1002/ppul.23332.
BIO5 Collaborators
Paloma Beamer, Dean Billheimer
Chien, L., Tsou, M., Hsi, H., Beamer, P., Bradham, K., Hseu, Z., Jien, S., Jiang, C., Dang, W., & Ozkaynak, H. (2017). Soil ingestion rates for children under 3 years old in Taiwan. JOURNAL OF EXPOSURE SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, 27(1), 33-40.
Monica D. Ramirez-Andreotta, ., Mark L. Brusseau, ., Paloma Beamer, ., & Raina M. Maier, . (2013). Home gardening near a mining site in an arsenic-endemic region of Arizona: Assessing arsenic exposure dose and risk via ingestion of home garden vegetables, soils, and water. Science of the Total Environment, 454-455, 373-382.
BIO5 Collaborators
Paloma Beamer, Raina Margaret Maier