Professor, Epidemiology
Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
Fielding School of Public Health
University of California, Los Angeles
650 Charles E. Young Drive South, 73-320A CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Phone: 310-206-7458
Email: britz@ucla.edu
Website: Fielding School of Public Health
Publications:
To view a list of publications from Dr. Ritz, click here
Research Areas:
Dr. Ritz is a Professor of Epidemiology with co-appointments in the Environmental Health department at the UCLA School of Public Health and in Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine; she co-directed the NIEHS-funded UCLA Center for Gene-Environment Studies of Parkinson's disease. Her research focuses on the health effects of occupational and environmental toxins such as pesticides, ionizing radiation, and air pollution on chronic diseases including neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders (Parkinson's disease, autism cognition), cancers, and adverse birth outcomes and asthma. She previously investigated the causes of cancer in chemical toxin and radiation exposed workers and assessed the impact of ergonomic work-place factors on musculo-skeletal disorders. For the past two decades, she studied the effects of air pollution on adverse birth outcomes as well as asthma, autism, and cancers in children in Southern California. In 2006, she received the Robert M Zweig Memorial award for outstanding achievement in air quality and medicine from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and in 2012 she has been appointed a member of the CA-EPA Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants. In 2011 she recieved an award from the American Parkinson's Disease Association (APDA) for outstanding contributions to the advancement of Parkinsons research. She is directing and collaborating in a large number of federally (NIH, DOD), state (California Air Resources Board), and foundation (Michael J Fox Foundation, Komen) funded research projects.
