Penelope Quintana
Professor
College of Health and Human Services
School of Public Health
SDSU
Bio
Dr. Penelope (Jenny) Quintana is a Professor of Public Health at San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health. She has an MPH from San Diego State University and a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from UC Berkeley. She has assessed children’s exposure to thirdhand smoke (residual tobacco toxicants remaining after smoking has taken place) through hand and surface wipe analysis and analysis of house dust, and demonstrated the persistence of third-hand smoke in environments such as rented apartments and hotels. She has studied exposure to toxic traffic pollutants inside vehicles waiting in lines to cross the US-Mexico border and biomarkers of absorption of diesel pollutants in pedestrians waiting in long lines northbound at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. She is the author of a recent report drawing attention to the long northbound wait times and lines of idling vehicles at US-Mexico Ports of Entry as an environmental justice issue for border crossers and surrounding communities. She is appointed by Governor Brown to the Scientific Guidance Panel for the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program.
Areas of Expertise
She has a research focus on exposure assessment and environmental justice, especially environmental exposures to children and vulnerable populations at the US-Mexico border.