Faculty

Background and Expertise:

Dr. John D. Meyer is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences in the School of Public Health.  Dr. Meyer received his BA from Hamilton College, his MD from Cornell University Medical College, and his MPH in Environmental Health from the Boston University School of Public Health.  He joins the School of Public Health faculty after holding positions in academic occupational health at West Virginia University, the University of Connecticut Health Center, and SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine.  He also served as Lecturer in Occupational Medicine at the University of Manchester (UK), where he was engaged in national occupational surveillance programs to measure the extent of work-related illness.

 

Dr. Meyer’s research focuses on reproductive hazards and risks for low birth weight and prematurity.  In his research, Dr. Meyer has given special attention to using administrative datasets and longitudinal surveys to evaluate occupational risk factors, the psychosocial hazards of work, and health disparities in minority populations mediated by work characteristics.  He has been the principal investigator on several grants from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD).  These grants have supported his investigation of a number of important environmental and occupational health issues.  These include: occupational characteristics and their link to adverse pregnancy outcomes, risk for heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders, and exposures and methods of transition to the use of environmentally preferable cleaning products (“Green Cleaning”) in janitorial and housekeeping personnel. 

 

Methodologically, his interests have extended to the application of techniques of social epidemiology, longitudinal data analysis and multi-level modeling into the evaluation of work-related ill health.  At the University of Connecticut Health Center, he established a consultation service in occupational and environmental reproductive hazards for working pregnant women and those concerned with exposures prior to conception.  While there, Dr. Meyer also developed guidance documents for pregnant women and their medical care givers on environmental reproductive hazards, including the nail salon and beauty industries.

 

Dr. Meyer has served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Study Section for Occupational Safety and Health for several years and is a member of the International Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Occupational Medicine (UK).  He was president of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) in 2004, and served on its Board for two terms.  He has directed occupational medicine residency programs at the West Virginia University School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.  He twice served as chair of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) Residency Directors Association.  He currently directs the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) Occupational Medicine Board Review course, and teaches occupational medicine and toxicology for the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) Board Review course.   He has served as consulting medical director or physician to the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Connecticut State Department of Insurance.  From 2008 to 2010, he served was chair of the Connecticut State Medical Examining Board for Disability Retirement from 2008-2010. 

 

Selected Recent Publications:

Mutambudzi M, Meyer JD, Warren N, Reisine S.  Effects of psychosocial characteristics of work on pregnancy outcomes: A critical review.  Women & Health 2011; 51: 3, 279-297

 

Meyer JD, Cifuentes M, Warren N.  Association of self-rated physical health and incident hypertension with O*NET factors: Validation using a representative national survey.  J Occup Environ Med 2011; 53:139-145

 

Meyer JD, Warren N, Reisine S.  Racial and ethnic disparities in low birth weight delivery associated with maternal occupational characteristics.  Am J Ind Med 2010: 53: 153-162

Metersky ML, Bean S, Meyer JD, Mutambudzi M,  Brown-Elliott BA, Wechsler M, Wallace RJ.  Trombone player’s lung: A probable new cause of hypersensitivity lung disease.   Chest 2010; 138: 754-756

Meyer JD.  Occupational Diseases and Injuries in Women.  Clinical Updates in Women’s Health Care.  Washington DC.  American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.  Vol. IX, No. 3 July 2010

Morse T, DeLoreto A, St  Louis T, Meyer JD.  Are employment shifts into non-manufacturing industries partially responsible for the decline in occupational injury rates? Am J Ind Med 2009; 52: 735-741

Meyer JD, Nichols GH, Warren N, Reisine S.  Maternal occupation and risk for low birth weight delivery:  Assessment using state birth registry data.  J Occup Environ Med 2008;50:306-315.

Meyer JD, D’Andrea DC.  Occupational Tuberculosis.  in Wright, W., ed.  Occupational and Environmental Infectious Diseases.  2nd edition Beverly, MA.  OEM Press.  2008.

 

Meyer JD, Warren N, Reisine S.  Job control, substantive complexity, and risk for low birth weight and preterm delivery: An analysis from a state birth registry.  Am J Ind Med 2007; 50: 664-675

 

Meyer JD, McCunney, RJ.  Occupational Exposure to Noise.  in Rom W, Markowitz S., ed. Environmental and Occupational Medicine.  4th edition.  Philadelphia.  Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.  2006

D’Andrea DC, Meyer JD.  Workers’ compensation reform.  Clin Occup Environ Med. 2004; 4; 259-271

 

Selected Recent Presentations:

 

Meyer JD.  Racial discrimination as a mediator between job control and health.  EPICOH 2011:  22nd International Conference on Epidemiology in Occupational Health, Sept 7-9 2011. Oxford, UK. 

 

Meyer JD, Mutambudzi M.  Construction of trajectories of work complexity and their association with subsequent health.  EPICOH 2011:  22nd International Conference on Epidemiology in Occupational Health, Sept 7-9 2011. Oxford, UK. 

 

Meyer JD.  Job control, racial work discrimination and their joint effects on health.  NIOSH Conference on Eliminating Health and Safety Disparities at Work.  Chicago IL.  Sept 14-15, 2011

 

Meyer JD, Warren N, Reisine S. Do work characteristics mediate ethnic disparities in birth outcomes?  Evidence from a birth dataset. American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.  Oct. 2008 (oral presentation)  

 

Meyer JD, Warren N, Reisine S. Job characteristics and risk of low birth weight and premature delivery: analysis from state birth registry data.  Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting, Boston, MA. June 2007.  Am J Epidemiol 2007; 165 (suppl): S21

Meyer JD, Warren N, Nichols GH, Reisine S.  Job strain in pregnancy and risk of low birth weight delivery.  American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Boston MA.  Nov. 2006