Carl M. Shy    

Professor Emeritus, Department of Epidemiology, UNC School of Public Health

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• Carl M. Shy, In Memoriam
  Carl Shy passed away on May 3, 2026. Please feel free to send me tributes and remembrances that you would like added to his In Memoriam webpage.
• Interview with Karin Yeatts and Lorraine Alexander
  February 13, 2015 in the Epidemiology small conference room (suite 2102). Recorded by Victor Schoenbach
• LinkedIn profile
• Curriculum vitae
  Dated 12/13/1999
• ScholarGPS profile
  Publications and citation counts, by year
• Recognition and celebration for Carl Shy and fellow introductory epidemiology instructors
  January 30, 2002, featuring Lorraine Alexander's presentation celebrating Carl Shy's redesign and teaching EPID160, 1993-2002
• 40 Voices of Orange Habitat: Carl Shy (1m 40s)
  Carl Shy came to Orange Habitat to volunteer with his church, but found a familiar face. He then started a 14-year journey of being one of our trusted volunteer electricians.
• Lead in petrol: the mistake of the XXth century
  Rapp. trimest. statist. sanit. mond., 43 (1990) (Archived page courtesy of the Internet Archive's WayBack Machine.)
• Shy Conservation Easement
• Statement of Carl M. Shy before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee regarding EPA's Proposed Air Quality Standard for Particulate Matter
  Statement of Carl M. Shy before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air Wetlands, Private Property and Nuclear Safety of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, APRIL 24, 1997. Subject: EPA's Proposed Air Quality Standard for Particulate Matter
• The Failure of Academic Epidemiology: Witness for the Prosecution
  Carl M. Shy. American Journal of Epidemiology, 15 March 1997;145(6):479–484, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009133 Abstract: Academic epidemiology has failed to develop the scientific methods and the knowledge base to support the fundamental public health mission of preventing disease and promoting health through organized community efforts. As a basic science of public health, epidemiology should attempt to understand health and disease from a community and ecologic perspective as a consequence of how society is organized and behaves, what impact social and economic forces have on disease incidence rates, and what community actions will be effective in altering incidence rates. However, as taught in most textbooks and as widely practiced by academicians, epidemiology has become a biomedical discipline focused on the distribution and determinants of disease in groups of individuals who happen to have some common characteristics, exposures, or diseases. The ecology of human health has not been addressed, and the societal context in which disease occurs has been either disregarded or deliberately abstracted from consideration. By essentially assuming that risk factors for disease in individuals can be summed to understand the causes of disease in populations, academic epidemiology has limited itself to a narrow biomedical perspective, thereby committing the biomedical fallacy of inferring that disease in populations can be understood by studying risk factors for disease in individuals. Epidemiology should be redefined as a study of the distribution and societal determinants of the health status of populations. This definition provides a stronger link to the primary mission of public hearth and places an appropriate emphasis on the social, economic, environmental, and cultural determinants of population hearth. Epidemiology must cross the boundaries of other population sciences and add to its scope a macro-epidemiology, a study of causes from a truly population perspective, considering health and disease within the context of the total human environment. Am J Epidemiol 1997;145:479–84.
• Carl Shy's professional career in his own words
  Handwritten, November 30, 1991. "In my professional work, I am most proud of my graduate students who have committed themselves to a career of research and service in public health. . . .
• Epidemiologic principles and methods for occupational health studies
  Carl M. Shy, 1986/09/01. Epidemiologic principles and study methods necessary in occupational health studies to make valid assessments of possible associations between occupational exposure and disease risk were discussed. In: Occupational respiratory diseases. Merchant, James A.; Bochlecke BA, Taylor G, eds. Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 86-102, 1986 Sep:103-136
• 1975 Letter to Joshua M. Lederberg
  June 13, 1975. Letter from Carl M. Shy et al. to Joshua M. Lederberg, Kennedy Laboratory for Molecular Medicine, Stanford University, seeking his views on major global problems for inclusion in a book compiling the views of Nobel laureates. "We are writing on behalf of a university-wide study group of faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill about something we think concerns us all."
• The Chattanooga School Children Study: Effects of Community Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide
  Original two articles in the Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, by Carl M. Shy M.D., Dr. P.H., John P. Creason M.S., Martin E. Pearlman M.D., Kathryn E. McClain, Ferris B. Benson & Marion M. Young M.D.:
  1. Methods, Description of Pollutant Exposure, and Results of Ventilatory Function Testing [1970 Aug;20(8):539-545] (link)
  II. Incidence of acute respiratory illness [1970 Sept;20(9):582-588] (link)
  
  The study was foundational in regulating the release of nitrogen dioxide into the atmosphere and led to the use of catalytic converters in automobiles. P.O. Warner and L. Stevens published an article questionning the conclusions of these studies (Revaluation of the "Chattanooga School Children Study" in the Light of Other Contemporary Governmental Studies: The Possible Impact of These Findings On the Present NO2 Air Quality Standard. Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association 1973;23(9):769-771 (link)). A Discussion by Carl Shy and the Authors' response (link) followed on pages 771-772.

  On March 23, 2026, Karin Yeatts interviewed Carl Shy about the Chattanooga School Children Study:
    Part 1 (2 min 50 sec)     Part 2 (2 min 40 sec)