Leeka I. Kheifets

Dr. Leeka Kheifets is a Professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health. She is widely known for her work in environmental and occupational epidemiology, and currently serves on several international and national committees that advise governments on environmental policy, including the Scientific Expert Group of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). She has also served on committees of the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI), the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, International Agency for Research on Cancer, and World Health Organization Working Groups. Prior to her professorship at UCLA, she was Head of the Radiation Studies Program at the World Health Organization and was a Technical Executive at the Electric Power Research Institute, where she directed a multi-disciplinary electric and magnetic fields (EMF) research program. She has taught at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Health Research and Policy, and has over 100 publications. Her current interests include innovative epidemiologic methods for studying risk factors for childhood leukemia, occupational exposures and ALS, development of policy in the face of uncertainty, and potential health effects of cell phone use and other non-ionizing radiation exposures. 

Education

  • PhD, Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, CA
  • MA, Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Related Tags

Selected Courses

  • Epidemiologic Methods in Occupational and Environmental Health 

Areas of Interest

  • Epidemiologic methods 

  • Environmental and occupational epidemiology 

  • Environmental exposure assessment 

  • Use of epidemiology for evidence-based public health policy development 

  • Non-ionizing and ionizing radiation 

  • Epidemiology of chronic diseases including cancer (particularly breast, leukemia, and brain), cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative disease 

  • Gene-environment interaction  

Selected Publications

  • Lukowsky L.R., Mehrotra R., Kheifets L., Arah O.A., Nissenson A.R., Kalantar-Zadeh K. Comparing Mortality of Peritoneal and Hemodialysis Patients in the First 2 Years of Dialysis Therapy: A Marginal Structural Model Analysis. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 2013 Jan 10 [Epub ahead of print]. 
  • Vergara X., Kheifets L., Greenland S., Oksuzyan S., Cho Y.S., Mezei G. Occupational Exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields and Neurodegenerative Disease: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2013; 55(2):135-146. 
  • Sudan M., Kheifets L., Arah O.A., Olsen J., Zeltzer L. Prenatal and postnatal cell phone exposures and headaches in children. The Open Pediatric Medicine Journal. 2012; (6):46-52. Vergara X.P., Kheifets L., Silva M., Bracken T.D., Yost M. New electric-shock job exposure matrix. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 2012; 55(3):232-240. 
  • Divan H.A., Kheifets L., Obel C., Olsen J. Cell phone use and behavioral problems in young children. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2012; 66(6):524-529. 
  • Swerdlow A.J., Feychting M., Green A.C., Kheifets L., Savitz D.A., International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection Standing Committee on Epidemiology. Mobile phones, brain tumors and the Interphone Study: Where are we now?. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2011; 119(11):1534-1538. 
  • Kheifets L., Ahlbom A., Crespi C.M., Draper G., Hagihara J., Lowenthal R.M., Mezei G., Oksuzyan S., Schüz J., Swanson J., Tittarelli A., Vinceti M., Wunsch Filho V. Pooled Analysis of Recent Studies of Magnetic Fields and Childhood Leukemia. British Journal of Cancer. 2010; 103(7):1128-1135. 
  • Kheifets L., Ahlbom A., Crespi C.M., Feychting M., Johansen C., Monroe J., Murphy M.F., Oksuzyan S., Preston-Martin S., Roman E., Saito T., Savitz D., Schüz J., Simpson J., Swanson J., Tynes T., Verkasalo P., Mezei G. A pooled analysis of extremely low-frequency magnetic fields and childhood brain tumors. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2010; 172(7):752-761. 
  • Kheifets L., Swanson J., Kandel S., Malloy T.F. Risk governance for mobile phones, power lines, and other EMF technologies. Risk analysis. 2010; 30(10):1481-1494. 
  • Kheifets L., Bowman J.D., Checkoway H., Feychting M., Harrington J.M., Kavet R., March G., Mezei G., Renew D., van Wijngaarden E., Future needs of occupational epidemiology of extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields: review and recommendations. Occupation and Environmental Medicine. 2009; 66(2):72-80. 
  • Greenland S., Kheifets L. Designs and analyses for exploring the relationship of magnetic fields to childhood leukaemia: a pilot project for the Danish National Birth Cohort. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 2009; 37(1):83-92.  
  • Kheifets L., Olsen J. Should epidemiologists always publish their results? Yes, almost always. Epidemiology. 2008; 19(4): 532-533. 
  • Kheifets L., Monroe J. Vergara X., Mezei G., Afifi A.A. Occupational electromagnetic fields and leukemia and brain cancer: an update to two meta-analyses. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2008; 50(6): 677-88. 
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