Dr Leisa-Maree Toms
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Biography
Dr Leisa-Maree Toms is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, QUT and Academic Lead for Research.She has 12 years of research experience within the field of Environmental Toxicology and Biomonitoring and has taught at The University of Queensland and QUT in the areas of population health, environmental toxicology and risk assessment.
Dr Toms' primary research focus is on monitoring persistent organic environmental pollutants in the Australian population. She has published over 70 scholarly papers and book chapters and has received over three quarters of a million dollars worth of funding since 2010, including an ARC DECRA and ARC LIEF.
Personal details
Positions
- Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work- Kelvin Grove Q Block Membership
Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (IHBI),
IHBI Health Projects - Kelvin Grove Q Block Membership
Keywords
human blood serum, human breast milk, perfluorinated compounds, persistent organic pollutants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, biomonitoring, maternal and childhood exposure
Discipline
Environmental Science and Management, Public Health and Health Services
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Queensland)
Teaching
Teaching Success
- PUN016 “Risk Assessment” (postgraduate)
- PUN466 “Communicable diseases” (postgraduate)
- PUB332 “Sustainable environments for health” (undergraduate)
- HLN703 “Project” supervisor
Experience
Professional development
Higher Education Academy (HEA) – Fellow (2016)
Academic Development: AD1 Introduction to teaching and learning at QUT, AD2 Strategies for student success and AD3 Assessment, feedback and marking (Semester 1, 2014).
Grants & Awards
External
- ARC Discovery 2018 “Exposure mapping – combining wastewater analysis with human biomonitoring.” $505K through UQ. Mueller, Thomas, Toms, Hobson
- The Financial Markets Foundation for Children; $60000: 2014 – 2015 Harden, Toms
“Childhood exposure to environmental pollutants in Australia” - QUT/QCMRI; $25000: 2014 Toms, Harden, Sly, Callaway, Dekker, Bartlett, Maher, English, Mueller “Partitioning of persistent organic pollutants in placenta, cord blood, maternal blood and breast milk”
- ARC DECRA; $375 000: 2012 – 2015 Toms “Accumulation and half-lives of brominated flame retardants”
- ARC LIEF; $249 000: 2014 Mueller; Gaus; Sly; Hall; Keller; Hawker; Toms; Harden; Lewis; Kirkbride; Prichard; Bruno; Birch; Negri; Carter; Ponsonby; Martin; Zitny. “Microflow ultra high pressure liquid chromatograph – high resolution mass spectrometer for chemical exposure monitoring” (UQ)
- Airservices Australia; $20 000 + 0.47 per recruit: 2013-2014 Mueller, Toms, Aylward, Kay “PFC body burden and associated health in firefighters. (UQ)
- Australian Department of the Environment; $400 000: 2013 – 2014 Mueller, Toms “Organic Pollutants in Human Media” (UQ)
- QUT VC fellowship; $20 000: 2010-2012 Toms “Accumulation and half-lives of brominated flame retardants”
Internal
- Toms, Thai, IHBI $8000 2016 “Investigating chemical exposure in pooled urine samples from South East Queensland.”
- Toms, IHBI ECR $10 000 2012 – 2014 “Assessment of occupational exposure to environmental pollutants”
Previous funding
- Australian Department of the Environment; $85 000: 2009 Mueller, Toms “Chemical Monitoring in the Australian population”
- Australian Department of the Environment; $10 000: 2009 Mueller, Toms “World Health Organisation Assessment of human breast milk”
- National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS); $88 000: 2006 Harden, Toms, Mueller “Assessing triclosan in the Australian population”
- Australian Department of the Environment; $322 000: 2005 Mueller, Toms, Harden, Gaus, Mortimer, Bartkow, Moore “Investigating BFRs in Australian aquatic sediment ($85K), indoor environments ($70K) and the population ($167K)”
Selected publications
- Bu Q, MacLeod M, Wong F, Toms L, Mueller J, Yu G, (2015) Historical intake and elimination of polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides by the Australian population reconstructed from biomonitoring data, Environment International, 74, pp. 82-88.
- Heffernan A, Sly P, Toms L, Hobson P, Mueller J, (2014) Bisphenol A exposure is not associated with area-level socioeconomic index in Australian children using pooled urine samples, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 21 (15), pp. 9344-9355.
- Toms L, Thompson J, Rotander A, Hobson P, Calafat A, Kato K, Ye X, Broomhall S, Harden F, Mueller J, (2014) Decline in perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate serum concentrations in an Australian population from 2002 to 2011, Environment International, 71, pp. 74-80.
- Harden F, Toms L, Norman R, Kim Y, (2014) Health consequences of exposure to brominated flame retardants: A systematic review, Chemosphere, 106, pp. 1-19.
- Law R, Covaci A, Harrad S, Herzke D, Abdallah M, Fernie K, Toms L, Takigami H, (2014) Levels and trends of PBDEs and HBCDs in the global environment: Status at the end of 2012, Environment International, 65, pp. 147-158.
- Heffernan A, Aylward L, Toms L, Sly P, MacLeod M, Mueller J, (2014) Pooled biological specimens for human biomonitoring of environmental chemicals: Opportunities and limitations, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 24, pp. 225-232.
- Aylward L, Green E, Porta M, Toms L, Den Hond E, Schulz C, Gasull M, Pumarega J, Conrad A, Kolossa-Gehring M, Schoeters G, Mueller J, (2014) Population variation in biomonitoring data for persistent organic pollutants (POPs): An examination of multiple population-based datasets for application to Australian pooled biomonitoring data, Environment International, 68, pp. 127-138.
- Heffernan A, Aylward L, Samidurai A, Davies P, Toms L, Sly P, Mueller J, (2014) Short term variability in urinary bisphenol A in Australian children, Environment International, 68, pp. 139-143.
- Tran T, Vu-Anh L, Dunne M, Toms L, Tenkate T, Harden F, (2015) Sustainability of public health interventions to reduce the risk of dioxin exposure at severe dioxin hot spots in Vietnam, Journal of Community Health, 40 (4), pp. 652-659.
- Heffernan A, Aylward L, Toms L, Eaglesham G, Hobson P, Sly P, Mueller J, (2013) Age-related trends in urinary excretion of Bisphenol A in Australian children and adults: Evidence from a pooled sample study using samples of convenience, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A: Current Issues, 76 (18), pp. 1039-1055.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Leisa-Maree, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Research projects
- Title
- Childhood exposure to environmental pollutants in Australia - an investigation of sources and effects for informing legislation
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- 2014-167
- Start year
- 2014
- Keywords
- Children's Health; Environmental Pollutants
- Title
- Accumulation and Half-lives of Brominated Flame Retardants
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DE120100161
- Start year
- 2012
- Keywords
- Brominated Flame Retardants; Pbde Half-Lives; Environmental Monitoring