About

Henry Anderson, MD, is an expert on environmental and occupational disease, with a focus on dusts and chemicals, public health, epidemiology, and disease and exposure surveillance. He serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Population Health at the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies and the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW–Madison. His work encompasses environmental disease and exposures, including surveillance, risk assessment, childhood asthma, lead poisoning, and health hazards related to Great Lakes sport fish consumption. Additionally, he specializes in occupational disease, addressing issues such as asbestosis, silicosis, work-related asthma, noise, occupational fatalities, and injuries among youth. Dr. Anderson is also involved in emergency response efforts related to terrorism, natural disasters, and chemical spills. He holds certification from the American Board of Preventive Medicine in the subspecialty of occupational and environmental medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Environmental chemistry
• Intensive care medicine
• Chemistry
• Environmental health
• Physiology
• Endocrinology

Selected publications

• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Fish Consumption in the Great Lakes Fish Consumer Study (GLFCS)

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Development of a history-taking form for mesothelioma patients at risk of exposure to asbestos

  Public Health Action · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Mesothelioma is causally established to be primarily related to asbestos exposure as a risk factor. Before considering other possible causative factors for mesothelioma, a detailed exposure history is warranted, which looks at possible prior exposures to asbestos. Some exposures may be unknown to patients, may be forgotten or may not be readily available as a comprehensive tool for the clinicians dealing with mesothelioma patients. METHODS: We used the Delphi anonymous consensus technique to develop and validate a detailed, seven-sectioned, and comprehensive questionnaire that can be readily used by clinicians and researchers. Over two rounds, the experts followed a thorough and rigorous process to validate the questionnaire, including medical history along with occupational, non-occupational as well as para-occupational exposure to asbestos, and many other parameters that can be both rule in and rule out the possibility of mesothelioma. Questions have also been included to factor in other types of dust exposure for an informed differential diagnosis. RESULTS: We have created a readily available history-taking questionnaire validated by experts, which can be replicated for other conditions and become an essential tool for diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Apart from accurate and informed diagnosis, this documentation can be valuable for epidemiological, research, policy-informing, legal and compensation related issues.

  PublisherDOI

• CAILLAN DAVENPORT and MEAGHAN MCEVOY (Eds), The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. xvi+405. <scp>isbn</scp> 9780192865236 (hbk). £100.00. 9780191955686 ebook; 9780192688804 ebook; 9780192688811 ebook.

  The Journal of Roman Studies · 2025-03-18

  article1st authorCorresponding

  CAILLAN DAVENPORT and MEAGHAN MCEVOY (Eds), The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. xvi+405. isbn 9780192865236 (hbk). £100.00. 9780191955686 ebook; 9780192688804 ebook; 9780192688811 ebook.

  PublisherDOI

• The Accession of Marcian and his Marriage to Pulcheria Viewed through the Stranger-King Paradigm

  2025-06-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter explores the accession of the East Roman Emperor Marcian in relation to Marshall Sahlins’ theory of stranger-kingship. Marcian's coronation coincided with his marriage to the Augusta Pulcheria, a scion of the Theodosian ruling dynasty to which Marcian was a complete outsider. This chapter will posit that the stranger-king paradigm provides us with a useful new lens through which to view both Marican's marriage and the way in which his accession was presented. Like many of the stranger-king exempla discussed by Marshall Sahlins, Marcian is an example of a relative outsider cementing his ruling legitimacy through a union with a ‘native’ woman, who herself brings her own form of cosmic authority. Pulcheria's position as leading member of the Theodosian Dynasty and saintly reputation as a ‘bride of Christ’ helped to grant Marcian, a relative unknown, the legitimacy he desperately needed. At the same time, during and after Marcian's own lifetime, various stories were formulated that sought to show his inherent destiny to rule. Such tales can be seen as being akin to the foundational narratives of stranger-kings arriving to rule a new land, crafted to grant otherworldly authority to the rulers who traced their royal lineage back to these often-mythic dynastic progenitors. Though Marcian did not found his own dynasty, his association with the far-reaching Council of Chalcedon meant that for many Chalcedonian Christian writers there was a desire to attribute to him a special, divinely sanctioned greatness that would further legitimise the council that had instituted their specific orthodox world order.

  PublisherDOI

• Stranger-Kingship in Antiquity

  2025-06-09

  book
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2025-06-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  It is a remarkably common fact that the great chiefs and kings of political society are not of the people they rule. By the local theories of origin they are strangers, just as the draconic feats by which they come to power are foreign to the conduct of the “real people” or “true sons of the land,” as Polynesians might express it… typically, then, these rulers do not even spring from the same clay as the common aboriginal people: they are from the heavens or – in the very common case – they are of distinct ethnic stock.

  PublisherDOI

• Polychlorinated biphenyls and incident coronary heart disease-related outcomes in Great Lakes fish consumers

  Environmental Research · 2024-05-14 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has been linked to risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as increased inflammation, accelerated atherosclerosis, diabetes, and sex hormone dysregulation. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence suggesting associations between internal dose of PCBs and cardiovascular outcomes. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate longitudinal associations of PCBs with coronary heart disease (CHD)-related outcomes in a cohort of Great Lakes sport fish consumers. METHODS: The Great Lakes Sport Fish Consumer cohort was established in the early 1990's. Eight hundred nineteen participants were followed from 1993 to 2017. Serum PCBs were measured in 1994/1995 (baseline), in 2001, and in 2004, while health history questionnaires were administered in 1996, 2003, 2010, and 2017. Cox models were used to prospectively investigate associations of total PCBs and PCB groupings, based on aryl hydrocarbon receptor activity, with incident self-reported physician diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), and angina pectoris. RESULTS: A 2-fold increase in phenobarbital-type PCBs was associated with a 72% increase in likelihood of self-reported incident diagnosis of CHD (HR=1.72, 95% CI: 1.06-2.81; p=0.0294). Similar results were observed for total PCBs (HR=1.68, 95% CI: 1.05-2.69; p=0.0306) and mixed methacholine/phenobarbital type (mixed-type) PCBs (HR=1.60, 95% CI: 1.02-2.52; p=0.0427), but not methacholine-type PCBs. PCBs were not strongly associated with risk of MI or angina. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents evidence that exposure to PCBs increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Given the large number of risk factors and causal pathways for CHD, future research is required to better understand biological mechanisms of action for PCBs on CHD.

  PublisherDOI

• Realising a high value, integrated pathway for knee osteoarthritis

  Physiotherapy · 2024-06-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• 18. Chronic Respiratory Diseases

  American Public Health Association eBooks · 2023 · 1 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Intensive care medicine
  • Internal medicine
  PublisherDOI

• Fish consumption and advisory awareness in the Great Lakes basin

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2022-02-23 · 5 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant U60OH008484

  NIH · $1.1M · 2015

• NIH Grant U01EH000428

  NIH · $840k · 2013

• NIH Grant U01OH007298

  NIH · $347k · 2004

• NIH Grant UE1EH001043

  NIH · $962k · 2016

• Wisconsin Expanded Program Occupational Health Surveillance Project

  NIH · $3.3M · 2021–2026

Frequent coauthors

• R. O. Anderson

  United States Geological Survey

  150 shared

• Jessica Campbell

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  116 shared

• Dwight E. Adams

  University of Central Oklahoma

  107 shared

• Michael Heumann

  106 shared

• J Kennedy

  104 shared

• Martha Stanbury

  103 shared

• Carina Blackmore

  100 shared

• Michael A. McGeehin

  100 shared

Education

• M.D.

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

• B.S.

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

Awards & honors

• Fellow, American College of Epidemiology