Study by ECU medical student shows effects of wildfire smoke on infants

Radhika Dhingra already had the letters “Dr.” before her name before she stepped foot into the Brody Medical Sciences Building as a medical student.

Dhingra completed her undergraduate education in architecture and math and then collected advanced degrees in Atlanta: master’s degrees in environmental engineering and environmental health and epidemiology, and then a doctorate in environmental health.

As a public health researcher with the Environmental Protection Agency and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she put her education to work investigating the impacts of wildfires on children’s health.

“Wildfires are proliferating all over the world. They’re certainly doing more damage than just to people’s property or land,” Dhingra said. “They are definitely doing damage to our mental health as well as our physical health, including impacts on our lungs.”

Dhingra is lead author on a study published in February in the journal Environmental Health that showed wildfire smoke exposure in the six months after birth causes long-term effects on the respiratory health of children, which is seemingly intuitive. A surprising twist in the findings of Dhingra’s study is the upper respiratory system — from the nose down to the larynx — was primarily impacted by the smoke, which presents a particular challenge for babies.

Dhingra said she knows people think it’s a lot to take on medical school, but she said she is fundamentally interested in how people become sick and wants to combine her training in epidemiology with the practice of medicine to improve the health of marginalized populations who often are disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and climate change. She applied during the COVID-19 pandemic to get a sense of how the process of applying to medical schools worked so that she would be prepared for the future, not imagining that she might be selected.

Dhingra is a nontraditional medical student, with a husband and a young child to consider, and a career that includes ongoing research with some of North Carolina’s marginalized populations, so staying in North Carolina was an important part of her decision to undertake the program. As important, Dhingra said, was the feeling of being welcomed by Brody’s leadership, particularly Dr. Cedric Bright, the vice dean for medical education and admissions.

“Radhika is worthy of praise,” Bright said. “I think she’ll be a great ambassador for Brody. She already is.”