Dennis Shusterman, MD, MPH

Professor Emeritus

Education:
MD, UC Davis, 1978. Rotating Internship, The Waltham Hospital, 1978-1979. FP Residency, San Jose Hospital, 1979-1981. MPH, Environmental Health Sciences, UC Berkeley, 1982. Clinical Fellowship in Environmental Medicine, UCSF, 1994-1996.

Employment:
Medical Director, Sonoma County Indian Health Project, 1981-1984. Public Health Medical Officer, CA Dept. of Health Services, 1985-1991; Cal/EPA, 1991-1994. Full-time faculty, UCSF/SFGH Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 1994-2004. Professor of Medicine and Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, 2004-2007. Chief, Hazard Evaluation Section and Information Service (HESIS), CA Dept. of Public Health, Occupational Health Branch, Richmond, CA, 2007-2014. Staff Physician, Occupational Health Clinic, University of California, Berkeley, 2014-present.

Recent research activities:
Co-PI, FAMRI Clinical Innovator Award: "Second-hand smoke and sinusitis: Effect of sidestream smoke on sinus ostial patency." Collaborated with ORL Depts. at UCSF and UW on use of acoustically stimulated nasal NO as an index of ostiomeatal complex patency. Collaborated with Indoor Air Quality Section at California Department of Public Health on a pilot study of nasal trigeminal irritation by microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs). Mentored OEM fellow in a systematic literature review of the the relationship between occupational rhinitis and occupational asthma. Affiliated with Human Exposure Laboratory, ZSFGH, and Director of Upper Airway Biology Laboratory, UC Berkeley / Richmond Field Station.
Honors and Awards
  • Clean Air Award, California Breathing, 2013
  • Gaspar de Portola Academic Exchange, University of Barcelona, 2002
Websites
Publications
  1. Association of Allergic Rhinitis With Change in Nasal Congestion in New Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Users.
  2. Solvent-based paint and varnish removers: a focused toxicologic review of existing and alternative constituents.
  3. A simplified technique for evaluating nasal mucociliary clearance via saccharin transit time.
  4. FMRI correlates of olfactory processing in typically-developing school-aged children.
  5. Nasal Trigeminal Perception of Two Representative Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds (MVOCs): 1-Octen-3-ol and 3-Octanol—a Pilot Study
  6. Dust Exposure and Coccidioidomycosis Prevention Among Solar Power Farm Construction Workers in California.
  7. A Device-Independent Evaluation of Carbonyl Emissions from Heated Electronic Cigarette Solvents.
  8. Role of the Allergist-Immunologist and Upper Airway Allergy in Sleep-Disordered Breathing.
  9. Nonallergic Rhinitis: Environmental Determinants.
  10. The nasal nitric oxide response to external acoustic energy: A pilot study of sampling dynamics
  11. Coccidioidomycosis among Workers Constructing Solar Power Farms, California, USA, 2011-2014.
  12. Occupational irritant and allergic rhinitis.
  13. Fatalities due to dichloromethane in paint strippers: a continuing problem.
  14. Thirty minute-exposure to aged cigarette smoke increases nasal congestion in nonsmokers.
  15. Occupational rhinitis and other work-related upper respiratory tract conditions.
  16. Pilot evaluation of the nasal nitric oxide response to humming as an index of osteomeatal patency.
  17. The role of state public health agencies in national efforts to track workplace hazards and the relevance of state experiences to nanomaterial worker surveillance.
  18. The effects of air pollutants and irritants on the upper airway.
  19. MMWR
  20. Toxicology of the Nose and Upper Airways. NY: Informa Healthcare
  21. Nasal physiological reactivity of subjects with nonallergic rhinitis to cold air provocation: a pilot comparison of subgroups.
  22. Carbon monoxide epidemic among immigrant populations: King County, Washington, 2006.
  23. Qualitative effects in nasal trigeminal chemoreception.
  24. Symposium overview: Nasal trigeminal function: qualitative, quantitative, and temporal effects.
  25. Documentation of the nasal nitric oxide response to humming: methods evaluation.
  26. Nasal hyperreactivity in allergic and non-allergic rhinitis: a potential risk factor for non-specific building-related illness.
  27. Trigeminally-mediated health effects of air pollutants: sources of inter-individual variability.
  28. Environmental nonallergic rhinitis.
  29. Does Haber's law apply to human sensory irritation?
  30. Seasonal allergic rhinitic and normal subjects respond differentially to nasal provocation with acetic acid vapor.
  31. Chlorine inhalation produces nasal airflow limitation in allergic rhinitic subjects without evidence of neuropeptide release.
  32. Acute respiratory responses of the mouse to chlorine.
  33. Oscillometric assessment of airway obstruction in a mechanical model of vocal cord dysfunction.
  34. Potential health effects of odor from animal operations, wastewater treatment, and recycling of byproducts.
  35. Influence of age, gender, and allergy status on nasal reactivity to inhaled chlorine.
  36. Gene expression for carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes in human nasal mucosa.
  37. Real-time monitoring of nasal mucosal pH during carbon dioxide stimulation: implications for stimulus dynamics.
  38. Differences in nasal irritant sensitivity by age, gender, and allergic rhinitis status.
  39. Epidermal growth factor receptor - but not histamine receptor - is upregulated in seasonal allergic rhinitis.
  40. Toxicology of nasal irritants.
  41. Chlorine inhalation produces nasal congestion in allergic rhinitics without mast cell degranulation.
  42. Cholinergic blockade does not alter the nasal congestive response to irritant provocation.
  43. Review of the upper airway, including olfaction, as mediator of symptoms.
  44. Individual factors in nasal chemesthesis.
  45. Chlorine exposure and the upper respiratory tract.
  46. Odor-associated health complaints: competing explanatory models.
  47. The influence of sex, allergic rhinitis, and test system on nasal sensitivity to airborne irritants: a pilot study.
  48. Work-related asthma and latex allergy. Sorting out the types, causes, and consequences.
  49. Critique of the multicenter latex skin testing efficacy study.
  50. Chest wall pain and possible rhabdomyolysis after chloropicrin exposure. A case series.
  51. Subjects with seasonal allergic rhinitis and nonrhinitic subjects react differentially to nasal provocation with chlorine gas.
  52. A comparison of two methods for determining nasal irritant sensitivity.
  53. Measurement of nasal irritant sensitivity to pulsed carbon dioxide: a pilot study.
  54. Latex allergy.
  55. Medical causation analysis heuristics.
  56. A community-based epidemiologic study of acute health effects from a metam-sodium spill on California's Sacramento River.
  57. Predictors of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide exposure in smoke inhalation patients.
  58. Irritant-induced asthma.
  59. Surrogate laboratory measures of cyanide intoxication.
  60. Persistent respiratory health effects after a metam sodium pesticide spill.
  61. Dose-response assessment of airborne methyl isothiocyanate (MITC) following a metam sodium spill.
  62. The respiratory health impact of a large urban fire.
  63. Clinical smoke inhalation injury: systemic effects.
  64. Mixing incompatibilities and toxic exposures.
  65. Polymer fume fever and other fluorocarbon pyrolysis-related syndromes.
  66. Trichloroethylene exposure.
  67. Employment in electronics manufacturing and risk of spontaneous abortion.
  68. Immediate health effects of an urban wildfire.
  69. Unintentional carbon monoxide deaths in California from charcoal grills and hibachis.
  70. Community health and odor pollution regulation.
  71. Environmental odor pollution.
  72. Occupational and environmental disorders of the special senses.
  73. Critical review: the health significance of environmental odor pollution.
  74. Health effects of indoor odorants.
  75. Hypotheses to explain the higher symptom rates observed around hazardous waste sites.
  76. Symptom prevalence and odor-worry interaction near hazardous waste sites.
  77. Pregnancy outcomes in women potentially exposed to occupational solvents and women working in the electronics industry.
  78. Exposure to organic solvents and adverse pregnancy outcome.
  79. Prevention of psychological disability after occupational respiratory exposures.
  80. Espresso maker's wrist.
  81. Methylene chloride intoxication in a furniture refinisher. A comparison of exposure estimates utilizing workplace air sampling and blood carboxyhemoglobin measurements.
  82. Pregnancy outcomes in women potentially exposed to solvent-contaminated drinking water in San Jose, California.
  83. Behavioral sensitization to irritants/odorants after acute overexposures.
  84. Workers' compensation.
  85. Skeletal muscle and myocardial injury associated with metal fume fever.
  86. Prolonged fever associated with inhalation of multiple pyrolysis products.
  87. Problem-solving techniques in occupational medicine.
  88. Kinetics of bilirubin oxidation with peroxidase, as applied to studies of bilirubin-albumin binding.