John Balmes, MD

Professor
M_MED-ZSFG-OCCM
[email protected]
+1 628 206-8314

Dr. Balmes received his MD degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1976. After internal medicine training at Mount Sinai and pulmonary subspecialty, occupational medicine, and research training at Yale, he joined the faculty of USC in 1982. He joined the faculty at UCSF in 1986 and is currently Professor in the Divisions of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). His major academic activities include several collaborative epidemiological research projects, various advisory and editorial committees, Director of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, Director of the Northern California Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (a consortium of programs at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UCSF). Since 2008 he has been the Physician Member of the California Air Resources Board.

Until 2015, Dr. Balmes was the Director of the UCSF Human Exposure Laboratory (HEL). The HEL was the first group to demonstrate a) histological evidence of ozone-induced airway injury and inflammation in human subjects, b) that asthmatic subjects have greater inflammatory responses to ozone than normal subjects, c) that ozone-induced inflammatory responses in normal subjects attenuate with short-term exposures on consecutive days in the lung, and d) that asthmatic subjects recruit macrophages to the airways with consecutive day exposures. The HEL also studied the relationship of acute airway inflammatory responses to acute cardiovascular responses after both ozone and secondhand tobacco smoke.

Dr. Balmes is also collaborating on several epidemiological projects that are run out of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health where he is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences. One such project is called the Children’s Health and Air Pollution Study (CHAPS). The overall specific goal of CHAPS is to assess the impact of air pollution on the health of children living in Fresno, including adverse effects on immune and metabolic function that may increase the risk of asthma onset/exacerbation, obesity, glucose dysregulation, and hypertension. A second project involves study of the effects of biomass smoke exposure on chronic respiratory health of children and adults in rural Guatemala, Malawi, Nepal, and Rwanda. A third line of research involves the effects of arsenic in drinking water on lung health in both Bangladesh and Chile. Yet another project involves the effect of chronic exposure to pesticides among a birth cohort of Mexican-American children in Salinas.

Publications

Climate Change and Respiratory Health: Opportunities to Contribute to Environmental Justice: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

Annals of the American Thoracic Society

Croft DP, Lee A, Nordgren TM, Jackson CL, Bayram H, Balmes JR, Nassikas N, Ewart G, Rice MB, Benmarhnia T, Celedón JC, Holm SM, Kerr GH, Anenberg S, Méndez-Lázaro P, Ambri P, Goobie GC, Rebuli ME, Wilson S, Annesi-Maesano I, Balakrishnan K, Cromar K, Jaspers I, Harkema JR, Kapil V, Lai P, Maccarone J, Noël A, Paulin LM, Pinkerton KE, Teherani A, Ahn E, Thurston G, Thakur N

Household Air Pollution Interventions to Improve Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Official American Thoracic Society Research Statement.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Lai PS, Lam NL, Gallery B, Lee AG, Adair-Rohani H, Alexander D, Balakrishnan K, Bisaga I, Chafe ZA, Clasen T, Díaz-Artiga A, Grieshop A, Harrison K, Hartinger SM, Jack D, Kaali S, Lydston M, Mortimer KM, Nicolaou L, Obonyo E, Okello G, Olopade C, Pillarisetti A, Pinto AN, Rosenthal JP, Schluger N, Shi X, Thompson C, Thompson LM, Volckens J, Williams KN, Balmes J, Checkley W, Ozoh OB

Race and Ethnicity in Pulmonary Function Test Interpretation: An Official American Thoracic Society Statement.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Bhakta NR, Bime C, Kaminsky DA, McCormack MC, Thakur N, Stanojevic S, Baugh AD, Braun L, Lovinsky-Desir S, Adamson R, Witonsky J, Wise RA, Levy SD, Brown R, Forno E, Cohen RT, Johnson M, Balmes J, Mageto Y, Lee CT, Masekela R, Weiner DJ, Irvin CG, Swenson ER, Rosenfeld M, Schwartzstein RM, Agrawal A, Neptune E, Wisnivesky JP, Ortega VE, Burney P

Post-TB lung disease in three African countries.

The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

Binegdie AB, Brenac S, Devereux G, Meme H, El Sony A, Gebremariam TH, Osman R, Miheso B, Mungai B, Zurba L, Lesosky M, Balmes J, Burney PJ, Mortimer K

Response.

Chest

Johannson KA, Vittinghoff E, Morisset J, Wolters PJ, Noth EM, Balmes JR, Collard HR

Air Pollution and Lung Function in Minority Youth with Asthma in the GALA II (Genes-Environments and Admixture in Latino Americans) and SAGE II (Study of African Americans, Asthma, Genes, and Environments) Studies.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Neophytou AM, White MJ, Oh SS, Thakur N, Galanter JM, Nishimura KK, Pino-Yanes M, Torgerson DG, Gignoux CR, Eng C, Nguyen EA, Hu D, Mak AC, Kumar R, Seibold MA, Davis A, Farber HJ, Meade K, Avila PC, Serebrisky D, Lenoir MA, Brigino-Buenaventura E, Rodriguez-Cintron W, Bibbins-Domingo K, Thyne SM, Williams LK, Sen S, Gilliland FD, Gauderman WJ, Rodriguez-Santana JR, Lurmann F, Balmes JR, Eisen EA, Burchard EG

A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.

Lancet (London, England)

Lim SS, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Danaei G, Shibuya K, Adair-Rohani H, Amann M, Anderson HR, Andrews KG, Aryee M, Atkinson C, Bacchus LJ, Bahalim AN, Balakrishnan K, Balmes J, Barker-Collo S, Baxter A, Bell ML, Blore JD, Blyth F, Bonner C, Borges G, Bourne R, Boussinesq M, Brauer M, Brooks P, Bruce NG, Brunekreef B, Bryan-Hancock C, Bucello C, Buchbinder R, Bull F, Burnett RT, Byers TE, Calabria B, Carapetis J, Carnahan E, Chafe Z, Charlson F, Chen H, Chen JS, Cheng AT, Child JC, Cohen A, Colson KE, Cowie BC, Darby S, Darling S, Davis A, Degenhardt L, Dentener F, Des Jarlais DC, Devries K, Dherani M, Ding EL, Dorsey ER, Driscoll T, Edmond K, Ali SE, Engell RE, Erwin PJ, Fahimi S, Falder G, Farzadfar F, Ferrari A, Finucane MM, Flaxman S, Fowkes FG, Freedman G, Freeman MK, Gakidou E, Ghosh S, Giovannucci E, Gmel G, Graham K, Grainger R, Grant B, Gunnell D, Gutierrez HR, Hall W, Hoek HW, Hogan A, Hosgood HD, Hoy D, Hu H, Hubbell BJ, Hutchings SJ, Ibeanusi SE, Jacklyn GL, Jasrasaria R, Jonas JB, Kan H, Kanis JA, Kassebaum N, Kawakami N, Khang YH, Khatibzadeh S, Khoo JP, Kok C, Laden F, Lalloo R, Lan Q, Lathlean T, Leasher JL, Leigh J, Li Y, Lin JK, Lipshultz SE, London S, Lozano R, Lu Y, Mak J, Malekzadeh R, Mallinger L, Marcenes W, March L, Marks R, Martin R, McGale P, McGrath J, Mehta S, Mensah GA, Merriman TR, Micha R, Michaud C, Mishra V, Mohd Hanafiah K, Mokdad AA, Morawska L, Mozaffarian D, Murphy T, Naghavi M, Neal B, Nelson PK, Nolla JM, Norman R, Olives C, Omer SB, Orchard J, Osborne R, Ostro B, Page A, Pandey KD, Parry CD, Passmore E, Patra J, Pearce N, Pelizzari PM, Petzold M, Phillips MR, Pope D, Pope CA, Powles J, Rao M, Razavi H, Rehfuess EA, Rehm JT, Ritz B, Rivara FP, Roberts T, Robinson C, Rodriguez-Portales JA, Romieu I, Room R, Rosenfeld LC, Roy A, Rushton L, Salomon JA, Sampson U, Sanchez-Riera L, Sanman E, Sapkota A, Seedat S, Shi P, Shield K, Shivakoti R, Singh GM, Sleet DA, Smith E, Smith KR, Stapelberg NJ, Steenland K, Stöckl H, Stovner LJ, Straif K, Straney L, Thurston GD, Tran JH, Van Dingenen R, van Donkelaar A, Veerman JL, Vijayakumar L, Weintraub R, Weissman MM, White RA, Whiteford H, Wiersma ST, Wilkinson JD, Williams HC, Williams W, Wilson N, Woolf AD, Yip P, Zielinski JM, Lopez AD, Murray CJ, Ezzati M, AlMazroa MA, Memish ZA

Clearing the air.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Balmes J, Pinkerton K

Fatal injuries at work in California.

Journal of occupational medicine. : official publication of the Industrial Medical Association

Cone JE, Daponte A, Makofsky D, Reiter R, Becker C, Harrison RJ, Balmes J