N. Beth Ragan

Ms. Ragan is alternate project officer for the Treatment of Lead-exposed Children (TLC) trial, a multi-center randomized, controlled clinical trial of oral chelation therapy to prevent lead-induced disorder of growth, behavior and cognitive development in toddlers. The TLC has randomized 780 children between 13–33 months of age with blood leads of 20–45 µg/dL and is following them for 3 years after treatment. Ms. Ragan serves on both the Coordinator's Subcommittee and the Environmental Subcommittee for the TLC trial.

Ms. Ragan joined Walter Rogan (Epidemiology Branch, NIEHS) and Beth Gladen (Statistics Branch, NIEHS) as a co-investigator in a puberty followup of their cohort study of North Carolina children who were exposed to background levels of PCBs and DDT. In this 5-year followup study, the children completed annual self-assessments of their pubertal status with questionnaires that include simplified line drawings of the Tanner stages. The study indicated that transplacental exposures to background levels of PCBs and DDE affected height and weight of boys and girls at puberty.

Ms. Ragan also designs and maintains several Institute web pages, including those for the Treatment of Lead-exposed Children trial, Epidemiology Branch, and the NIEHS Institutional Review Board (IRB).

• Gladen BC, Ragan NB, Rogan WJ. Pubertal growth and development and prenatal and lactational exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethene. Journal of Pediatrics 136: 490–496, 2000
• Treatment of Lead-exposed Children Trial Group. The Treatment of Lead-exposed Children (TLC) Trial: Design and recruitment for a study of the effect of oral chelation on growth and development in toddlers. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 12: 313–33, 1998
• Rogan WJ, Ragan NB. Chemical contaminants, pharmacokinetics, and the lactating mother. Environmental Health Perspectives 102(Suppl 11): 89–95, 1994
• Baird DD, Ragan NB, Wilcox AJ, Weinberg CR. The relationship between reduced fecundability and subsequent foetal loss. Chapter 19. In: Gray R, Lerison H, Spira A (eds). Biomedical and demographic determinants of reproduction. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, pp. 329–341
• Gladen BC, Taylor JS, Wu Y-C, Ragan NB, Rogan WJ, Hsu CC. Dermatological findings in children exposed transplacentally to heat-degraded polychlorinated biphenyls in Taiwan. British Journal of Dermatology 122: 799–808, 1990
• Rogan WJ, Gladen BC, Hung K-L, Koong S-L, Shih L-Y, Taylor JS, Wu Y-C, Yang D, Ragan NB, Hsu C-C. Congenital poisoning by polychlorinated biphenyls and their contaminants in Taiwan. Science 241: 334–336, 1988
• Gladen BC, Rogan WJ, Ragan NB, Spietro RW. Urinary porphyrins in children exposed transplacentally to polyhalogenated aromatics in Taiwan. Archives of Environmental Health 43: 54–58, 1988
• Rogan WJ, Gladen BC, Ragan NB, Anderson HA. US prevalence of occupational pleural thickening: A look at chest x-rays from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. American Journal of Epidemiology 126: 893–900, 1987