BS Environmental Health senior student, Jackson Hooton, did his 9-week summer internship from June to August 2017 with the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Washington.  Jackson spent his summer with the Center for One Health Research (COHR) learning about One Health.  He was responsible for developing and piloting environmental sampling protocols for occupational health research. While also conducting air quality and ultraviolet (UV) radiation research, his main project involved sampling for microbial exposure in the dairy farming industry. Previous studies have indicated an alarming shift in the gut microbiome of dairy workers, so his environmental health and safety (EHS) team sampled the surfaces of “high touch” areas to see a correlation between microbes found in a dairy farming environment and microbes found in the human body. While the study is still in progress, his team aims to see what microbes are being “shared” between humans, animals, and the environment in the dairy farming industry through DNA extraction.

Jackson was featured by the COHR on their Facebook page at this link.

Photos courtesy of Jackson Hooton