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​Prof. Shelly Lap-Ah TSE 謝立亞教授

Prof. Shelly Lap-Ah TSE

謝立亞教授

BMed (Fudan), PhD (CUHK), PgD Dip. Occ. Hyg.(CUHK), ICOH (member), FHKIOEH (fellow)

Associate Director (Mainland China Affairs) /

Professor

Email: shelly@cuhk.edu.hk

 

ORCID: 0000-0003-0355-6218

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Academic Appointments

  • National Secretary of ICOH, People’s Republic of China

  • Visiting Professor, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

  • Adjunct Professor, Fudan University, China

  • Visiting Professor, Nanjing Medical University, China

  • Associate Director, Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, CUHK

  • Director, Professional Diploma Programme in OEM | OEH | OEHP

  • Director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Studies (COEHS)

  • Director, The CUHK Center of Public Health and Primary Care (Shenzhen)

  • Chairman, Advisory Committee – Environmental Hygiene, CUHK

  • Member of Occupational Health and Safety Council & Research Committee Chairman, Quality Assurance Sub-Committee Chairlady

  • Honorary Advisor, Department of KCC FM&GOPC, Hospital Authority

Biography

Professor Shelly Tse is an occupational and environmental epidemiologist who joined the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor in 2007. She was substantiated in 2013 and further promoted to Professor in 2021. Her main area of research is in occupational and environmental exposures on health, with particular interest in assessing health impacts of shiftwork/circadian rhythm, occupational silica dust exposure and handling electronic waste recycling products.

 

Shelly has received competitive research grants as PI from local, national and international granting bodies such as GRF/RGC, HMRF, PCFB, NSFC (mainland), ENSURE (CUHK-UoE (UK)), as well as research grants from NIH (USA), totaling over US$6 million (HK$50 million). Shelly has ongoing research collaboration with international partners, such as NCI/NIH, IARC/WHO, University of Exeter, Utrecht University and University of Toronto. Shelly is listed the world's top 2% cited scientist in 2022, and has more than 230 research publications in web of science, with an h-index of 40.

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Shelly’s national/international profile is also reflected through a number of impactful national and international recognition, such as ‘Best Original Paper Award Winners (12/2023), Hong Kong Medical Journal’, ‘the Second-Class Award of State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (01/2015, 4th)’, keynote speech at International Congress of Occupational Health in Dublin (04/2018). Additionally, she is serving several important positions to professional bodies, including the National Secretary of International Commission of Occupational Health (ICOH), P.R. of China (2022-24), Research Committee Chairman of Occupational Safety and Health Council (2023-25), and President of Hong Kong Institute of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (2019-21). Shelly’s research achievement has significantly influenced the policy and practice in occupational health beyond academia.

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Additionally, Prof. Tse has great passion in teaching. Being the course coordinator for both postgraduate and undergraduate teaching, such as PHPC3017 (Work and Health), PUBH6004 (Environmental Health and Risk Assessment), and directors of three Professional Diploma Programmes in Occupational and Environmental Medicine | Hygiene | Practice. She is deeply passionate about course design, management and benchmarking development to meet international standards.

Research Interests

1. Shift work/circadian rhythm and various health impacts

  • cancer of breast, prostate and lung

  • obesity, metabolic syndrome

  • cognitive impairment, mental health


​​2. Occupational and environmental exposures on cancers and non-cancers

  • environmental impacts on health of workers and general population (e.g., PM2.5, greenspaces/light at night/noise, HAP-solid fuel uses)

  • silica dust exposure and health impacts (e.g., silicosis, COPD, lung cancer, imaging genetics and risk level assessment)

  • electronic waste recycling worker’s health (e.g., urinary chemical burdens including heavy metals and OPEs, and DNA damage)

  • occupational and environmental exposures on etiology of lung cancer (e.g., incense smoke burning, residential radon exposure, workplace secondhand smoke)


​3. Other research interests: occupational safety and health, workplace sustainability

Recent Funded Research Projects 

Night shift work

  • Assessing the mental health impacts of exposures to light at day and night, noise, and green/blue spaces among nurses with different work shifts. General Research Fund/RESEARCH GRANTS COUNCIL (GRF/RGC), 2024-2025. [role: PI]

  • Characterizing Roles of Paired Nightshift Work Schedule and Evening Chronotype on alleviating Sleep Disturbance and Mental Health Problems among Nurses in Hong Kong Granting agency: Food and Health Bureau (FHB) - Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), 2022-2024. [role: PI]

  • Hong Kong Breast Cancer Genomics Study. Granting agency: National Cancer Institute of National Institutes of Health, 2021-2025. [role: PI]


​Silica dust

  • Artificial Intelligence Assisted Diagnosis and Risk Prediction of Pneumoconiosis Based on Imaging Genetics. Granting agency: Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund Board, 2025-2027. [role: PI]

  • Lung Function and Progression of Chest Radiographic Profusion among Pneumoconiosis Patients with Different Statuses of Cigarette Smoking in Hong Kong during 1981-2019. Granting agency: Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund Board, 2021-2023. [role: PI]

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Occupational health & safety

  • Identifying Risks of Outbreaks in Work Settings and the Implications for Control Measures. Granting agent: Food and Health Bureau (FHB) - Health and Medical Research Fund, Commissioned Research on the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), 2021-2026 [role: PI]

  • Exposure prevention behavior survey and urinary concentrations of short/long half-life chemicals among e-waste recycling workers in Hong Kong. Granting agency: General Research Fund/RESEARCH GRANTS COUNCIL (GRF/RGC), 2021-2023. [role: PI]


Climate change & environmental exposures

  • Investigating Nature Based Solutions for Climate, Air Pollution and Health: Co-benefits, health inequalities and future research directions. Grant agency: 2024 ENSURE Grand Challenge Scheme (EXETER-CUHK), 2024-2024. [role: CUHK-PI]

  • Psychological wellbeing of young people affected by climate change in India and Hong Kong. Granting agency: CUHK – TGI Joint Collaborative Research Fund, 2023-2024. [role: CUHK-PI]

  • Deploying Geospatial Big Data and Real-time Mobile Sensing to Assess the Health Impacts of Individual Exposure to Green/blue Spaces, Light at Night, Air Pollution, and Noise (GLAN). Granting agency: Research Grants Council (RGC) - Collaborative Research Fund (CRF), 2021-2024 [role: co-PI]

Selected Publications

  1. Liao G, Weng X, Wang F, Yu YHK, Arrandale VH, Chan AH, Lu S*, Tse LA*. Urinary metals and their associations with DNA oxidative damage among e-waste recycling workers in Hong Kong. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 2024;284:116872. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116872

  2. Weng XQ, Liao GZ, Wang F, Li WZ, Kwan MP, Arrandale V, Tse LA*. Association of residential greenness with incident allergic rhinitis among adults: A prospective analysis of UK Biobank. Science of the Total Environment, 2024;946:174184. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174184. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724043328

  3. Liao G, Weng X, Wang F, Yu YHK, Arrandale VH, Chan AH, Lu S*, Tse LA*. Estimated daily intake and cumulative risk assessment of organophosphate esters and associations with DNA damage among e-waste workers in Hong Kong. Chemosphere, 2024;360:142406.  doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142406. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653524012992

  4. Koka H, Bodelon C, Horvath S, Lee PMY, Wang D, Song L, Zhang T, Hurson AN, Guida JL, Zhu B, Bailey-Whyte M, Wang F, Wu, C, Tsang, KH, Tsoi, Y, Chan WC, Law SH, Hung RKW, Tse GM, Yuen KK, Karlins E, Jones K, Vogt A, Zhu B, Hutchinson A, Hicks B, Garcia-Closas M, Chanock S, Barnholtz‑Sloan J, Tse LA* and Yang XR* DNA methylation age in paired tumor and adjacent normal breast tissue in Chinese women with breast cancer. Clinical Epigenetics (2023) 15:55. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-023-01465-1 .

  5. Tse LA, Wang CA, Rangarajan S, Liu ZG, Teo K, Yusufali A, Avezum A, Wielgosz A, Rosengren A, Kruger I, Chifamba J, Calik K, Yeates K, Zatońska K, AlHabib K, Yusoff K, Kaur M, Ismail N, Seron P, Lopez-Jaramillo P, Poirier P, Gupta R, Khatib R, Kelishadi R, Lear S, Choudhury T, Mohan V, Li W, Yusuf S. Timing and length of nocturnal sleep and daytime napping and associations with obesity types in High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Countries. JAMA Network Open, 2021;4(6):e2113775. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13775. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2781513

  6. Tse LA*, Lin XN, Li WT, Qiu H,  Chan CK, Wang F, Yu ITS, Leung CC. Smoking cessation sharply reduced lung cancer mortality in a historical cohort of 3185 Chinese silicotic workers from 1981 to 2014. British Journal of Cancer, 2018;119(12):1557-1562. doi: 10.1038/s41416-018-0292-6. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0292-6.pdf

  7. Tse LA*, Lee PMY, Ho WM, Lam AT, Lee MK, Ng SSM, He Y, Leung L, Hartle JC, Hu H, Kan H, Wang F, Ng CF. Bisphenol A and Other Environmental Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer in Hong Kong. Environment International 2017;107: 1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.06.012 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412017307444?via%3Dihub

  8. TSE LA, Yu TSI, Nathaniel R, JI B, Qiu H, Wang XR, Hu W, Au JS and Lan Q. Joint Effects of Environmental Exposures and Familial Susceptibility to Lung Cancer in Chinese Never Smoking Men and Women. Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 2014;9 (8): 1066-72.  https://www.jto.org/article/S1556-0864(15)30636-5/fulltext     

  9. Tse LA, Yu IT, Qiu H, Au JSK, and Wang X. A Case-Control Study of Lung Cancer and Incense Smoke, Smoking and Residential Radon in Chinese Men. Environmental Health Perspectives 2011; 119: 1641-46. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3226486/

  10. Tse LA, Yu IT, Qiu H, Au JS, Wang X, Tam W, and Yu KS. Lung Cancer Decreased Sharply in First Five Years after Smoking Cessation in Chinese Men. Journal of Thoracic Oncology,  2011; 6:1670-6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21747301/

Last Updated: 7 October 2024

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