# Jed Waldman

Chief, Indoor Air Quality Program

California Department of Health Services

Environmental Health Laboratory

Richmond, CA 94804

## Biography

Jed Waldman has worked at the California Department of Health Services
since 1996 as chief of the Indoor Air Quality Program, located at the
Richmond Laboratory Campus. He is responsible for research, training,
and public outreach on the full range of IAQ issues, including building
design and ventilation, volatile organic compounds, asbestos,
bioaerosols, and environmental tobacco smoke. Most recently, he directed
studies of environmental health conditions in public school classrooms
and chemical emissions from building materials.

Jed chairs of the California Interagency Working Group on IAQ and heads
their work group on indoor environmental quality in schools. He has
served on advisory panels for the U.S. EPA, Health Effects Institute,
the American Lung Association, and the Environmental Law Institute, and
he currently serves on U.S. EPA's Science Advisory Board 's Integrated
Human Exposure Committee. He was a visiting professor at the University
of California at Berkeley School of Architecture in 2001 and 2003 and
co-taught (with Rick Diamond of LBNL) Healthy Building Design. Prior to
1996, he was an associate professor in Department of Environmental &
Community Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in
Piscataway, New Jersey.

Jed was trained in civil/sanitary engineering at the University of
Florida and holds a PhD in environmental engineering science
(atmospheric chemistry) from the California Institute of Technology.

## What I Learned at EPHLI 

Participating in the inaugural EPHLI has been both extremely rewarding
and, at the same time, personally dissatisfying. In both regards, it has
reflected the adage: you get out what you put in. I recognized from the
beginning that I was somewhat a fish out of water -- I am a research
scientist/supervisor working on environmental health issues, but my work
does not have include the mainline environmental health activities.
After raising this concern when I applied, we agreed that there was an
opportunity for all to learn from the challenges of the marginal fit.

This project evolved after changing my topic at a late point in the
term. The decision was made as I learned more about the essential
services approach to EH, and as I recognized that my original topic --
and much of what I do at my job -- was not the best match to this
approach. My original project topic -- Shaping policy to reduce chemical
emissions from building materials used in homes, offices, and schools --
was too narrow in scope, and it relies too heavily on the specialized
technical components of my program. Ironically, in the past six months,
I made significant progress on my original topic, as it is more closely
aligned with my job focus and I have had substantial staff resources to
apply. Nonetheless, I chose the new project topic, as it has been a
"burr under my saddle" for much of my time at the State Health
Department (10 years). I felt stuck in addressing it, so it begged for
new skills, fresh approaches, and renewed motivation. As the training
and project come to an end, I have more questions (and more frustration)
about how I should approach this problem. Nonetheless, the EPHLI has
given me a valuable new set of tools that, with practice, will certainly
help me face the challenges of this and future problems.