Note: Please visit DPH Paid Internship Program for program details, timeline, and application deadline. You will have a chance to share which project(s) you are interested when you submit the application online.
Project: Residential Radon Exposure: Tracking and evaluating radon test kits, usage and results
Organization: Bureau of Climate and Environmental Health
Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that can cause lung cancer. Overall, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States and is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year. The Radon Program in the Indoor Air Quality division of the Bureau of Climate and Environmental Health has been providing training and education on the dangers of radon to communities for decades. The program offers radon assessments and distributes radon kits upon request. However, the program does not have a tracking system that links outreach activities and radon sampling, nor a system that provides surveillance of elevated radon levels. The intern will be expected to develop a tracking and monitoring system for outreach activities associated with the distribution of radon kits and whether those kits were used for air sample testing. Further, the intern will be tracking elevated radon samples associated with the radon program’s kit distribution and analyze them with other community-level characteristics. The intern will develop the infrastructure for program evaluation of the radon outreach program. This information can help inform the Radon Program on targeted outreach and strategies to improve radon testing rates, and to assess the effectiveness of their outreach program.
Skills Required: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint); Statistics (including descriptive and inferential statistics); Effective communication skills (written and oral); Organizational skills; Innovative and creative thinker; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) desirable but not required
Technology Required: Laptop, Cell Phone
Work Arrangement: Hybrid
Hours Per Week: 20
Preferred Eligibility: Masters students
Preferred Academic Experience: Public Health, Environmental health, Environmental Science, Health Sciences, Epidemiology
For more information, please check out Program FAQs. You can also contact us by email dphinternship@mass.gov.