EES Ph.D. Research Seminar: Alexandra Del Favero-Campbell
Ph.D. Research Seminar
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Dalhousie University
Alexandra Del Favero-Campbell
Ph.D. Candidate
Title: The Effect of Environmental Factors on Mental Health in Nova Scotia
Abstract: Nova Scotia reports among the highest rates of mental health disorders in Canada, yet the environmental determinants of this burden remain incompletely characterized. While biological predisposition plays a role, environmental factors, like poor air quality and limited greenspace, are linked to increased mental health risks. Chronic geogenic metal exposures, notably arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and manganese (Mn) in both soils and private well water, represent an understudied pathway that may contribute to population level variation in mental health. This PhD project aims to disentangle the relationships between environmental stressors and mental health outcomes in Nova Scotia. This research investigates the role of chronic environmental exposure to heavy metals and metalloids originating primarily from geogenic sources in private drinking well water, as an understudied contributor. The central hypothesis guiding this work is that long term exposure to individual metals and to complex metal mixtures potentially act as neurotoxicants, increasing risk for mood and anxiety-related outcomes in adults, via a cascade that begins with oxidative stress status and systemic inflammation and progresses to neurotoxicity, with mixture patterns and long-term trace element status potentially modulating effects.
This Ph.D. thesis utilizes regional longitudinal data from two cohort studies, the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow's Health Study (PATH) and the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), as well as biological samples through a multi-project framework to better understand disparities, identify disease mechanisms, and explore interventions to mitigate metal exposure and reduce mental health inequalities in Atlantic Canada. Project 1 is a scoping review that maps geographic and methodological gaps in the arsenic–mental health literature, with a specific focus on studies conducted within the Americas. Project 2 links area weighted well water metal concentrations to Atlantic PATH participants’ standardized mental health measures and integrates relevant CLSA biomarker observations. Project 3 applies Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) to toenail metal measurements from Atlantic PATH participants to estimate overall mixture effects, explore non-linear exposure–response relationships, and identify metals that contribute most strongly to poor mental health risk. This third project also attempts to examine long-term trace element nutritional status in participants as a proxy to assess oxidative stress status overtime to potentially identify vulnerabilities based on nutritional status and environmental exposure. Collectively, these projects delineate geographically defined environmental risks for mental health in Atlantic Canada, identify specific metals and mixture signatures warranting further study, and provide an evidence base to inform targeted surveillance and mitigation strategies.
Biography: Alex completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Purdue University in 2013. Originally from Hawaii, her deep-rooted passion for species conservation and environmental health in her hometown led her to explore the anthropogenic effects on wildlife behavior, specifically focusing on insect species as part of her undergraduate research. This foundational interest in environmental health and human-wildlife interaction propelled her into international study, resulting in two research-based Master of Science degrees. The first was in Conservation Science from the University of Queensland in Australia, and the second was in Sustainability and the Bioeconomy, specializing in Natural Science, Engineering, and Environmental and Food Law, from the University of Hohenheim in Germany. Before beginning her doctoral work, Alex further diversified her interdisciplinary portfolio by performing research in collaboration with various institutions, including the U.S. Army and the EPA to explore the impacts of urbanicity on the health and ecology of freshwater stream systems. She also investigated critical links between extreme heat exposure and epigenetic aging in people with severe mental health disorders. Her current Ph.D. research at Dalhousie University focuses on the critical public health issue of chronic metal exposures and their associations with mental health outcomes in Nova Scotia, which she has received a funding award as a Scotia Scholar to pursue from Research Nova Scotia. Throughout her academic career, Alex has demonstrated exceptional dedication to student leadership and mentorship. She has actively mentored graduate students within her department and the Dalhousie Neuroscience department, and has served as a University of Hawaii research mentor for programs supporting high school and undergraduate students of native Hawaiian descent to enable early involvement in scientific research. She is also a very active member of Dalhousie's BIPOC Graduate Student Mentoring Academy. Outside of academics, Alex is committed to giving back to her community. She regularly volunteers at her favorite community soup kitchen when she is visiting her family. She also enjoys spending time traveling with her family and caring for her pets.
Time
Location
Milligan Room
Life Sciences Centre, Room 8007