Marilyn Howarth

Dr. Marilyn Howarth’s career in Public Health began when she was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers of Disease Control in Atlanta.  While an EIS officer she worked with communities and government agencies to investigate and tackle occupational and environmental problems.  After leaving the CDC, Dr. Howarth worked with Cooper Hospital in Camden, NJ re-shaping their Occupational Health efforts by reaching out to employers to provide medical services to their workers.  In 1995 she joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania as the Director of Consultation Services for the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.  In that role she published papers, taught courses, performed worksite evaluations and helped patients and communities with the effects of environmental exposures. Dr. Howarth has extensive experience evaluating and treating patients with exposure to heavy metals, solvents, mold, respiratory allergens and irritants, and musculoskeletal trauma. Dr. Howarth has participated with CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the National Institutes of Health and the Camden County Technical Advisory Board to work on topics as diverse as latex allergy, the health effects of air pollution, and lead and radiological contamination. She is a past president of the Pennsylvania Occupational and Environmental Medical Society and a former member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.  She is currently a member of the PHILAPOSH Technical Advisory Board, which helps unions with concerns about exposures on the job.  She is a founding professor of the University of Pennsylvania’s Masters in Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health course and provides educational programs on Environmental Health topics to community and employee groups.