S. Katharine Hammond

Sally Katharine Hammond is a professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research considers the impact of pollution and passive smoking on public health. It resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration issuing a ban on smoking on aeroplanes. Hammond serves on the World Health Organization study group on Tobacco Product Regulation.

Early life and education Hammond was born in Philadelphia and grew up in both Kansas City, Missouri and Lima, Ohio. She learned to play clarinet whilst she was at grade school, eventually moving to the bassoon as a teenager. She completed her doctoral research at Brandeis University, where she investigated the reactions of molybdate and tungstate with derivatives of catechol. After earning her doctorate, Hammond was recruited to the faculty at Wheaton College. When it became clear that she would not achieve tenure for several years, Hammond retrained in environmental health sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health where she earned a master's degree in 1981. The nitrogen is desorbed from the filters and subsequently analysed using gas chromatography. Her research and reporting to the Federal government of the United States resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration issuing a ban on smoking on aeroplanes. She also showed pregnant women who smoke transfer carcinogens through the placenta to their unborn children, increasing their risk factors for different cancers. At Berkeley Hammond leads the national Children's Health and Air Pollution study, which looks to understand and minimise the risks of air pollution on children's health in Fresno, California. Fresno has been identified as one of the eight most polluted cities in the United States. Her work showed that there is a direct link between pollution and children's immune systems; and that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon impacted Regulatory T cell function. She has looked at whether air pollution impacts the risk of premature birth and birth defects, whether air pollution causes allergies, how it impacts metabolism and obesity and how transit patterns impact foetus development in pregnant women. Amongst her research programs, she studies the impact of lead on the levels of lead in construction worker's blood and the impact of agrochemicals on the health of farmers. She has shown that smoking Hookah can be as damaging to the lungs as the smoking cigarettes.

Selected publications

She serves on the World Health Organization study group on Tobacco Product Regulation.

Personal life Hammond plays bassoon in the Prometheus Symphony Orchestra.