Dr Kayla Smurthwaite
BMEDS (Honours), PhD
Research Fellow, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health
ANU College of Health and Medicine
Areas of expertise
- Epidemiology 4202
- Environmental Epidemiology 420203
- Epidemiological Methods 420204
- Pollution And Contamination 4105
Research interests
Environmental Health
- Exposure measurement
- Risk assessment
- Risk communication
- Health and social concerns
- Current challenges of public interest
Special interest: Slow-moving environmental disasters
- Community exposure to loose-fill asbestos insulation
- Community exposure to Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
- Occupational exposure to PFAS in aviation firefighters
- General population exposure to PFAS
Applied Epidemiology Methodology
- Risk assessment
- Systematic review and meta-analysis
- Qualitative research
Biography
Kayla Smurthwaite is an applied epidemiologist and lecturer in environmental health at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.
Kayla has experience in epidemiological study design and data analysis, environmental epidemiology investigation, systematic review and qualitative research. Her PhD research focused on exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Australian communities affected by environmental contamination, through which she contributed to the PFAS Health Study, Air Services Australia Study of PFAS exposure, and an ongoing NHMRC study of longitudinal PFAS exposure assessment.
Kayla is the Convenor of the Human Health, Environment and Climate Change course for the Masters of Public Health, with experience in teaching environmental health.
See Google Scholar page.
Keywords: public health, applied epidemiology, environmental health, human exposure, risk assessment, persistent organic pollutants
Researcher's projects
- PFAS Health Study to investigate the exposure levels and potential health effects of PFAS in areas of known contamination in the communities of Williamtown in New South Wales, Oakey in Queensland, and Katherine in the Northern Territory, Australia.
- Assessing effectiveness of PFAS exposure control in exposed communities and firefighters to investigate the changes over time in PFAS concentrations in the blood serum of individuals who are known to have elevated exposures to PFAS in Australia at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, University of Queensland.
- ACT Asbestos Health Study to estimate the relative rates of mesothelioma and other cancers in relation to having lived in a Mr Fluffy house in the ACT.
Current student projects
- The PFAS Health Study identified a range of perceptions and experiences of blood testing for PFAS in these communities, including concerns of the reporting of PFAS measurements by General Practitioners. We have an current student research project on clinician reporting of PFAS in Australia, which aims to inform the development of tailored strategies to report blood test results to individuals and communities.
Past student projects
- Systematic review to assess the impact of temperature on the incursion and distribution of zoonotic pathogens in mammalian vertebrate livestock and wildlife populations (2021)
Publications
- Law, H, Armstrong, B, D'Este, C et al. 2023, 'Relative rates of cancers and deaths in Australian communities with PFAS environmental contamination associated with firefighting foams: A cohort study using linked data', Cancer Epidemiology, vol. 82.
- Lazarevic, N, Smurthwaite, K, Batterham, P et al. 2023, 'Psychological distress in three Australian communities living with environmental per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 874, pp. 1-11.
- Lazarevic, N, Smurthwaite, K, D'Este, C et al. 2023, 'Liver and cardiometabolic markers and conditions in a cross-sectional study of three Australian communities living with environmental per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination', Environmental Research, vol. 226, p. 13.
- Becvarik, Z, Smurthwaite, K & Lal, A 2023, 'The Effect of Temperature on the Distribution of Zoonotic Pathogens in Livestock and Wildlife Populations: A Systematic Review', Hindawi, vol. 2023.
- Tran, M, Smurthwaite, K, Nghiem, S et al. 2023, 'Economic evaluations of whole-genome sequencing for pathogen identification in public health surveillance and health-care-associated infections: a systematic review.', The Lancet Microbe, vol. 4, no. 11, pp. e953-e962.
- Nilsson, S, Braunig, J, Carey, R et al. 2022, 'Longitudinal measurements of per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in archived human serum samples between 1975 and 1995 in Australia', Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 443, no. Part B, pp. 1-9.
- Nilsson, S, Smurthwaite, K, Aylward, L et al. 2022, 'Associations between serum perfluoroalkyl acid (PFAA) concentrations and health related biomarkers in firefighters', Environmental Research, vol. 215.
- Nilsson, S, Smurthwaite, K, Aylward, L et al. 2022, 'Serum concentration trends and apparent half-lives of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Australian firefighters', International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, vol. 246, pp. 1-12.
- Banwell, C, Housen, T, Smurthwaite, K et al. 2021, 'Health and social concerns about living in three communities affected by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): A qualitative study in Australia', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 16, no. 1.
- Aw, J, Smurthwaite, K & Bagheri, N 2020, 'Investigating spatial convergence of diagnosed dementia, depression and type 2 diabetes prevalence in West Adelaide, Australia', Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 277, pp. 524-530.
- Chung, Y, Bagheri, N, Salinas-Perez, J et al. 2019, 'Role of visual analytics in supporting mental healthcare systems research and policy: A systematic scoping review', International Journal of Information Management, vol. 50, no. 2020, pp. 17-27.
- Smurthwaite, K & Bagheri, N 2017, 'Using geographical convergence of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes at the neighborhood level to inform policy and practice', Preventing chronic disease [electronic resource]., vol. 14, no. 10, pp. 1-9.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Independent PFAS Review - Health Advice (Secondary Investigator)
- Systematic review of the global occurrence of botulism, including infant botulism (Secondary Investigator)
