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Contamination Phil Brown, Ph.D Director of Research Translation - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Aug 23, 2023 310 likes •574 views

The Importance of Place in the Experience of Environmental Contamination Phil Brown, Ph.D Director of Research Translation Core and Co-Director of Community Engagement Core Northeastern Superfund Research Program This project is supported by

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This project is supported by Grant Award Number P42ES017198 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.

The Importance of Place in the Experience of Environmental Contamination

Phil Brown, Ph.D Director of Research Translation Core and Co-Director of Community Engagement Core Northeastern Superfund Research Program

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Environmental epidemiology begins with historical work on “place”: Snow’s research on cholera

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Woburn, Massachusetts

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  • Childhood leukemia cluster from well water contaminated by TCE from

W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods factories

  • “Popular epidemiology” – major effort on citizen-science alliance
  • Partial settlement
  • One of the major post-Love Canal examples of community response to

contamination My entry into environmental health, 1984

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Tallevast, Florida

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95% African-American historical community of long-time landowners Berrylium plant located in middle of residential neighborhood 1946 Massive TCE contamination Residents’ primary desire – resettle together 

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Fenceline Communities: Richmond, California

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  • Major oil refinery with

hazardous activity

  • Low income,largely African-

American and Latino

  • Multiple exposures
  • High asthma rate
  • Our Household Exposure Study

helped residents prevent refinery expansion NIEHS EJ grant

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Atmospheric deposition Biomagnification

  • St. Lawrence Island,

Alaska

Military dumping

Multiple effects of place

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Dealing with school siting

  • n contaminated land

 Assist in legal case  Work with DEM to push city government on monitoring Get first law in US to prohibit school siting on contaminated land Brown University Superfund Research Program

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ENACT (Tiverton, RI)

  • Work with Environmental Neighborhood Action Group (ENACT) to
  • btain adequate clean up of the soil contamination that has been

discovered in Tiverton from manufactured gas plant waste

  • Home values disappear – people can’t sell or move
  • Work with legislature to get nation’s first program to provide home

loans to people in contaminated areas

  • Work with legislature to get polluter fines bill

Local demonstration Gas plant waste found in soil Disrupted lives Brown University Superfund Research Program

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Place may be the fire and the fire house afterward

San Francisco Seattle Burlington VT

“Give Toxics the Boot” Safer Chemicals/Health Families and IAFF 3/26/14

Large focus on flame retardants, but also more generally on chemical hazards

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“Environmental Amnesia”

  • Sandra Steingraber’s wonderful article in Orion on

how people live in the midst of historical contamination and have no idea

  • Industry doesn’t have to disclose
  • State agencies rarely have records
  • People may want to forget due to property

values, jobs, other aspects of local economy, and tax base, commitment to the place

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ENVIRONMENTAL BREAST CANCER MOVEMENT – RESPONSE TO HIGH PREVALENCE IN A LOCATION

  • Since early 1990s, a new subset of the breast cancer movement
  • Motivated by rising incidence, weak knowledge of breast cancer

etiology, and by potential link to environment

  • Women noticed excess cancer rates in Long Island (NY), San

Francisco Bay Area, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts

  • Goals:

– broaden public awareness of potential environmental causes – increase research into environmental causes – increase activist participation in research – create policy to prevent environmental causes

Bay Area Mass. Long Island

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Symbolic Persuasion: Barrels to Blood

55-gallon drums icon of environmental advocacy from 1970s-1990s…

 Bodies as the place of contamination  Bodies as new symbol used for environmental advocacy  Embodied experience in a political context

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Transdisciplinary Approach

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Babies born before 37 completed weeks of gestation are considered preterm.

Puerto Rico has the highest rate (17.7%) of any U.S. jurisdiction Below only Malawi (18.1%) globally.

Preterm Births, United States and Puerto Rico

March of Dimes 2013 Premature Birth Report Card

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Changes in Risk Factors for Preterm Birth: Puerto Rico and US, 1990 and 2010

Risk Factor Puerto Rico United States 1990 2010 2010 Early prenatal care 71.3% 75.8% 73.1% Maternal education 66.6% 80.9% 80.1% Multiple gestations 1.7% 1.9% 3.5%

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Trends in factors do not seem to explain the high preterm birth rate of Puerto Rico

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Potential Contribution of Environmental Contamination

  • Reproductive damage
  • Preterm birth
  • Prenatal mortality
  • Spontaneous abortions

All have been found in groundwater in Puerto Rico

Several studies1 have related Contaminant Exposure to Adverse Reproductive Outcomes

1ATSDR, 2007; CERHR, 2006; Latini et

al., 2003; Ha and Cho 2002; Khattak, 1999; Lipscomb and Fenster, 19991

  • Phthalates
  • Chlorinated solvents (e.g. TCE)
  • Pesticides
  • Heavy Metals

k j k j k j k j k j k j k j k j k j k j k j

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Contamination in Puerto Rico

Study Site Superfund Sites in Puerto Rico: 3 sites were listed on NPL early 1980’s (1983, 1984, 1984) and 3 sites listed recently (1999, 2003, 2006) Contaminants include VOC’s (Tetrachloride, Trichloroethylene), pesticides, heavy metals (lead, copper, chromium), phthalates.

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Potential Exposure to Contaminants in the study area

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CVOCs PHTHALATES Potential Contamination Sources Superfunds (Active and inactive) Human Subject Study Area Groundwater Study Area

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Data and Sample Collection

Delivery & Postpartum (Clinic) Third Visit (Clinic) 24-28 weeks Second Visit (In-home) 20-24 weeks First Visit (Clinic) 16-20 weeks Screening & Recruitment

Study Subject V1 Interview V2 Interview V3 Interview & Food Frequency Interview Medical Record Abstraction Home Geographical Coordinates Medical Record Abstraction Medical Record Abstraction Biological Samples Environmental and Biological Samples Biological Samples Cord Blood Samples, Placental tissue Product Use Product Use Product Use Screening and Recruitment Questionnaire & Urine Collection Instructions Sample & Data Collection

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Community Engagement Core

Leaders: Carmen Velez Vega, UPR Phil Brown, Northeastern Univ. Other members: Liza Anzalota del Toro, Colleen Murphy

  • PROTECT Wins the 2015 People’s

Choice Award at the EPA Community Involvement Training Conference

  • Major collaboration with March of

Dimes in San Juan

  • The CEC has brought a number of

community partners together to form a Community Advisory Board that include Ciudadanos en Defensa del Ambiente (CEDDA; Citizens for Environmental Defense), Ciudadanos del Karso (Citizens of the Karst), and COTICAM (Steering Committee for Environmental Quality).

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Community Engagement Core

  • Report personal exposure data to

participants, collaborating with Silent Spring Institute

  • Develop and distribute brochures to

participants and general public on avoiding exposures in household and personal care products, and food

  • Develop and distribute education

material to health professionals on environmental factors in reproductive health

  • Presentations at Health Fairs
  • Documentary “36 Semanas”
  • ß(“36 Weeks”)

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Tap Water Brochure

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Retention strategies

  • Project identity = “PROTECT”

– Increases bond with participants, community and study site

  • Establishment of a Call Center

– Continuous and updated contact with study participants

Frequent meetings at the Prenatal Clinics

– Engage personnel and community in the project

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Acknowledgements

Research Funding

  • NIEHS – Superfund Research Program

– 1P42ES017198-01A1

Research Support

  • G12RR03051 (RCMI Program, UPR Medical Sciences) – RedCap
  • U54 RR 026139-01A1 NCRR, NIH
  • 8U54 MD 007587-03 NIMHHD, NIH- Laboratory Backup &

Transportation Logistics

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Community in Puerto Rico

  • PROTECT participants
  • Federally Qualified Health Centers
  • Morovis, Camuy, Ciales, Quebradillas, Lares
  • Physicians
  • Dr. González Camacho
  • Dr. Rodríguez Cacho
  • Dr. Capre Febus
  • Dr. José Ortiz