Community Outreach And Education Program Research Articles

An educational intervention on the risk perception of pesticides exposure and organophosphate metabolites urinary concentrations in rural school children in Maule Region, Chile

BackgroundOrganophosphate (OP) pesticides can be hazardous to human health if not applied with appropriate precautions. There is evidence in the Maule region of Chile that rural schoolchildren are exposed to OP pesticides. ObjectiveTo evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention on OP exposure and understanding of pesticides and their hazards (risk perception) in two school communities in the Maule Region of Chile during 2016. MethodWe conducted a quasi-experimental study about the effects on OP pesticide exposure of a community outreach and education program (COEP) administered in four 2-h sessions that's included hands-on activities among 48 schoolchildren from two rural schools. The intervention was directed to groups of parents and school-children separately, and aimed to educate them about the risks of exposure to pesticides and their effects on health. We measured 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy), 2-isopropyl-4-methyl-6-hydroxypyrimidine (IMPY), malathion dicarboxylic acid (MDA), p-nitrophenol (PNP), specific urinary metabolites of the OP pesticides chlorpyrifos, diazinon, malathion and parathion, respectively, as well as the non-specific diethylakylphosphates (DEAPs) and dimethylalkylphosphates (DMAPs) in 192 urine samples of schoolchildren collected before and after the intervention. The risk perception of school children and their parents was also assessed through a questionnaire before and after the intervention. Generalized Estimated Equations were used to account for each child’s repeated measures during four sessions, two in September 2016 (pre-intervention) and two in November 2016 (post-intervention). ResultsThe intervention level had significant effect on the risk perception of adults and children, which increased after the intervention. However, the intervention was not associated with reduced of urinary metabolites levels, with no significant differences between the pre and post measures. The detection frequencies were 1.1% (MDA), 71.4% (TCPy), 43.3% (IMPY), 98.96% (PNP), and 100% (DEAPs and DMAPs). Higher DEAPs urine concentrations were associated with eating more fruit at school (p = 0.03), a younger age (p = 0.03), and being male (p = 0.01). DMAPs showed no associations with potential predictor variables (e.g. OPs applied at home, fruit consumption at school, among others). Higher TCPy was associated with attending a school closer to farms (p = 0.04) and living in a home closer to farm fields (p = 0.01); higher PNP was marginally associated with children younger age (p = 0.035). ConclusionEnvironmental exposure to OP pesticides was unchanged even after behavior changes. It is possible that a longer time period is needed to observe changes in both behavior and urinary metabolites. The levels of DEP and DMP metabolites found here are above the reference population of the US, and our findings indicate exposure to a wide variety of OP pesticides. Given that individual-level interventions were not associated with lower exposures, efforts to reduce exposure must occur upstream and require stricter regulation and control of pesticide use by government agencies.

Beyond the Bench: Nurses Adapt to Changing Health Care Climate

Vol. 113, No. 12 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Nurses Adapt to Changing Health Care Climate Tanya Tillett Tanya Tillett Search for more papers by this author Published:1 December 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a814AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit With increased emphasis being placed on the importance of environmental health comes the need for an expanded variety of environmental health care practitioners. Nursing is one of several professions that are augmenting and advancing the capabilities of their practitioners to meet this need. Now the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of the University of New Mexico’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences has partnered with the New Mexico Environment Department to create an environmental health nursing internship as a component of its outreach program.In cooperation with the university College of Nursing, the partners recruit nursing students who are interested in implementing environmental health care initiatives in the surrounding community. For four years, the program has taken nursing students beyond the traditional curriculum and shown them firsthand how interaction with environmental factors affects human health. The program also gives students valuable experience in taking measures to abate hazardous exposures in communities.The interns are currently working on a number of projects that will affect different community members. They are helping to develop surveys and compiling data for a project investigating uranium exposure and subsequent kidney damage among the Navajo Nation, whose members live near and work in uranium mines. They are gathering and assembling materials for a community education and survey project on mercury in surface waters and other environmental health concerns among the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. They are helping COEP staff write and field-test an integrated environmental health curriculum on diabetes for middle school students. And in a fourth project, they are helping to develop a best-practices manual for applying farm waste fertilizer to croplands in a way that minimizes human exposure to aerosolized waste.The local ties of some of the nursing interns have enhanced the program’s role as an effective community advocate. Intern Krystyn Yepa is a Native American from the Pueblo of Jemez who became interested in environmental health nursing because she wanted to understand some of the health effects in her tribe resulting from exposure to different pollutants in the environment. “Learning about the different environmental health problems that exist in New Mexico has given me the willpower to finish nursing school to ultimately achieve my goal of improving the health and lifestyles of my people by placing importance on the environment,” she says.Yepa explains further, “As a Native American, I was raised to respect and appreciate the environment, and working at the COEP has only strengthened my values related to the environment.” She also credits the internship with teaching her important assessment tools that lay emphasis on the environment when completing a health history on patients, something a traditional nursing internship would not likely provide.“The nursing interns have been an incredible asset to our COEP,” says staff member Stefani Hines. “It is a mutually beneficial situation on many levels—the student nurses gather valuable real-world experiences in environmental health; the nursing school has access to additional, unique placements for their students; we have additional support for projects, which helps make them better; and the communities we work with benefit from the students’ efforts as well.”Dedicated, enthusiastic environmental health nursing interns will only continue to play an important role in advancing the COEP mission. One project currently in development will help community members get involved in city and county zoning processes, which will both encourage a healthy community mindset and minimize exposures to pollutants.Effecting change in Southwest communities.Krystyn Yepa (right) is one of several nursing interns working with Navajo and Sioux communities to reduce exposures and increase knowledge through a program of the University of New Mexico Center for Environmental Health Sciences.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 113, No. 12 December 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 December 2005Published in print1 December 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Beyond the Bench: Online and On Track with Veggie-Mon

Too much computer time may not be good for kids, but sometimes surfing the Internet can be a wholesome activity, especially when it involves websites that help children learn how to make informed choices about their own health. One such site is the Veggie-Mon website at http://www.veggie-mon.org/. Created in 2000 by the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of The Center for Research on Environmental Disease, a joint NIEHS center of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas at Austin, the Veggie-Mon website has informed thousands of kids about the choices they can make to lead a healthy life. The Veggie-Mon site introduces concepts of environmental risk factors and disease prevention to elementary- and middle-school students in a compelling and comprehensible way. “The goal of the site is to inform students, even young ones, that they can have an important and long-term impact on their own health by reducing their exposure to environmental risk factors and improving their diet,” says COEP director Robin Fuchs-Young. The homepage offers three portals, one for students in grades 4–6, one for students in grades 7–8, and one for teachers. Both student portals present information on three main topics: nutrition, sun and ultraviolet (UV) exposure, and tobacco use. According to Fuchs-Young, these are among the most important environmental risks faced by school-age children, and are also some of the risks that are most easily mitigated. Each visitor is accompanied through the different sections by Veggie-Mon himself, a character reminiscent of a walking, talking artichoke who offers site navigation tips and provides extra details on the information presented. Each of the three sections has information that is both informative and fun. Along the way, Veggie-Mon encounters different acquaintances who help him explain the subject matter. In the Nutrition section, students meet Strawberry Girl, an advocate of healthy eating habits. Here students can learn how to make healthy food choices through an illustrated food pyramid, and can also find recipes for delicious, wholesome snacks like a strawberry banana blast or a peanut butter and honey sandwich. The Sun and UV section features Sunspot, a character who discusses some of the dangers of too much sunlight. In this section, students learn how fish research is helping scientists study the connection between sun exposure and skin cancer, and they can also take Sunspot’s quiz to gauge how much they’ve learned. In the Tobacco Road section, students meet Igna-Ray-Mouse, a misinformed rodent who has decided to smoke. Here they can take a virtual journey down Tobacco Road with Igna-Ray-Mouse and learn how advertising messages and peer pressure may be used to try to convince them to smoke. At each fork in the road, evidence is presented to prove that choosing to smoke is a bad idea. Other tools on the site include a submission form to send questions to real scientists, a glossary, and a “laboratory” with instructions for simple experiments that students can conduct themselves. Each section also includes age-appropriate games and puzzles. Teachers have their own features on the site. In a password-protected area, they can access lesson plans and provide feedback on how the website has helped them with classroom activities. Educators also contribute directly to the development of the website. During a 4- to 6-week educator fellowship held each summer at The Center for Research on Environmental Disease, teachers from grades K–12 help the COEP staff translate center research findings into age-appropriate content. The COEP regularly revises the Veggie-Mon website to improve its usefulness for both students and teachers. Next up for the site is an exercise unit for the Nutrition section that will offer suggestions for fun and safe activities as well as information on healthy weight maintenance.

Beyond the Bench: Promoting Health in Texas Colonias

Vol. 113, No. 7 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Promoting Health in Texas Colonias Tanya Tillett Tanya Tillett Search for more papers by this author Published:1 July 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a454Cited by:1AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Sometimes the best educational resources can be found in your own backyard. Staff at the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of the NIEHS Center for Environmental and Rural Health at Texas A&M University recognize how true that can be. Concerned with the health of residents in local colonias (poor, unincorporated neighborhoods along the Texas–Mexico border whose residents are largely of Mexican origin), COEP staff have created a dynamic program that trains promotoras—residents of the colonias—to serve as a link between communities and health educators.The effort began six years ago as a way to educate colonia residents near Laredo about pesticides and other hazards. These residents lived near farm fields, and pesticides were showing up in house dust and hand-rinse samples. The program now includes a comprehensive environmental health educational program reaching colonia residents in areas bordering Laredo, McAllen, and Bryan.The promotoras are crucial to the success of the colonia outreach program because they are better able to establish a dialogue with community members. Families then often feel freer to express their concerns with regards to environmental health and more receptive to health education materials. The promotoras usually live in the same neighborhood they provide outreach to, lending a sense of trust and familiarity to their interactions with other residents.Promotoras are recruited through the Center for Housing and Urban Development at Texas A&M University and through the South Texas Association of Promotoras. According to COEP director Carmen Sumaya, it takes a special person to be a promotora. Although they vary in age from 25 to 60, with consequent variations in life experience, all promotoras are natural community advocates. These volunteers are willing to devote the time to absorb environmental health information and make it relevant to their neighbors so they can take something useful back to their communities.Melly Tamez, a Laredo promotora, is a dedicated community advocate who sees a need for such information in her community and works to provide it. “The people in my neighborhood need help in health issues, and I want to improve the quality of their lives by instructing them on how to avoid environmental health risks. I take great pride in my role as promotora,” says Tamez.The first phase of the program involves COEP staff and the promotoras meeting with families at local community centers so residents can identify any environmental health concerns they have. The second phase involves training the promotoras to use flip charts and other materials to convey relevant environmental health information (for example, safe drinking water and food safety practices). The promotoras’ feedback is important at this stage because they can help clarify how health messages can be presented most effectively. In the third phase, the promotoras schedule and conduct visits with their neighbors to provide culturally relevant environmental health education.In a typical visit, two promotoras come to the home of a resident who has invited at least two neighbors to participate. While one promotora presents environmental health information to the adults, the other engages the children of the household with coloring books and other fun activities. After the presentation, the promotoras answer any questions the residents might have and schedule follow-up visits for one and three months later.To date, about 15 promotoras have been trained by the COEP. Sumaya acknowledges their value to the COEP’s environmental health campaign. “Promotoras open the door for us to the people of the colonias. They play a pivotal role in the success of our outreach programs,” she says.Neighborly advice. A program along the Texas–Mexico border trains community members to be health advocates.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Forster-Cox S, Mangadu T, Jacquez B and Fullerton L (2009) The Environmental Health/Home Safety Education Project: A Successful and Practical U.S.-Mexico Border Initiative, Health Promotion Practice, 10.1177/1524839909341026, 11:3, (325-331), Online publication date: 1-May-2010. Vol. 113, No. 7 July 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 July 2005Published in print1 July 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Beyond the Bench: Oasis of Fun at Mount Desert Island

Vol. 113, No. 6 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Oasis of Fun at Mount Desert Island Tanya Tillett Tanya Tillett Search for more papers by this author Published:1 June 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a376AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Kids, summer, and water are three things that just naturally go together. The Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of the Center for Membrane Toxicity Studies, housed at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, is using its open-air Myers Marine Aquarium Visitors Center to maximize this combination and get kids excited about learning during the summer months. The Center for Membrane Toxicity Studies, one of the NIEHS Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Centers, educates children about the environment and their own role in keeping it healthy.For about five years, the COEP has provided environmental health enrichment to the surrounding community through the Myers Marine Aquarium Visitors Center. Aquarium staff provide weekly programs in the summer for local and tourist visitors to learn about the center’s research. In a typical tour, visitors learn about water pollutants and how they affect our health and environment, and are also given information on water quality management.Because school-aged children are the target audience, the message delivery is kept simple and fun. The aquarium has several tanks that allow for viewing and touching of the lab’s research species and other sea life from the Gulf of Maine. Cartoon-emblazoned posters illustrate center findings on how pollutants are processed in the body and describe in nonspecialist language our own responsibility in safeguarding the environment we live in. As part of the tour, center staff describe their research projects and allow visitors to view specimens through microscopes.“When we talk about environmental stewardship, I am always amazed by the reaction of the children,” says Jeri Bowers, the COEP associate director. “They love to get involved and to feel like they are playing an important role in maintaining a healthy environment; they take it very seriously. Our hope is that we can capture that enthusiasm and interest while they’re young—and influence their behavior well into adulthood.”The aquarium attracts large numbers of student groups. One particularly memorable visit was a May 2004 tour by a group of 40 children with Almström syndrome, a rare hereditary disorder that can affect multiple organ systems and cause blindness, hearing impairment, type 2 diabetes mellitus, heart failure, and liver disease. The visit was arranged by researchers at the nearby Jackson Laboratory, who discovered the gene for Almström syndrome and provide their own outreach to children affected by the illness. Bowers says the tactile component of the aquarium experience was especially important and beneficial for these children, most of whom can’t see or hear.Along with the strong community outreach it offers through the aquarium and labs, Mount Desert Island also has exciting environmental health research in progress that staff hope will someday become part of the children’s experience. Earlier this year, the lab set up a website ( http://ctd.mdibl.org/) for the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, a data system being created to provide centralized data on diverse organisms to scientists worldwide. The lab has also received NIH approval to sequence the genome of the skate, data that will eventually be entered into the Comparative Toxico-genomics Database. One of the future goals of the researchers is to incorporate the electronic data into the visitors program so that children can access the database on computers set up as part of the aquarium tour.Diving in. Children learn about the marine environment and their role in keeping it healthy at the Myers Marine Aquarium Visitors Center.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 113, No. 6 June 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 June 2005Published in print1 June 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Beyond the Bench: Mapping the Air in Public Schools

In the home, parents are the primary guardians of a child’s environmental health. However, once the child’s environment moves out of the home, identifying sources of protection can become difficult. The Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of Duke University’s NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, has pledged to give children’s environmental health the attention it deserves and is proactively implementing projects to create preventive environmental interventions that protect children before they become sick. One of the main questions the Duke COEP seeks to answer in its outreach activities is whether children are being exposed to environmental factors in school that contribute to asthma incidence. The Duke COEP staff have used geographic information system (GIS) technology in a number of applications to address this question, including a May 2004 assessment of the indoor air environment at nearby New Hope Elementary School. For years, students and staff in the Orange County school system (of which New Hope Elementary is a part) had complained of respiratory problems as well as general discomfort with fluctuating indoor temperatures and a sense that the air in the school buildings was unhealthy. COEP staff were asked to evaluate one sample school in the system and offer recommendations. They selected New Hope Elementary for study, then went into the school and conducted an evaluation of every classroom. The problems they observed included a high relative indoor humidity of around 75–78% (the ideal humidity is 35–40% when the outdoor temperature is 20°F or higher) and imbalances in the heating and cooling system (they observed temperature differences of as much as 5–10°F in separate classrooms in some instances). They also noticed problems exacerbated by failing insulation, such as mold spore development and air flow variations—some rooms would have a distinct breeze, while others had still, damp air. Once they had gathered their data, the COEP staff created a GIS compilation to display the data and analyze the results. The advantage of using GIS technology to interpret information is that it visually integrates previously unlinked sets of information, facilitating the detection of relationships among them. In the case of New Hope Elementary, the GIS map let concerned parents, teachers, school administrators, and education policy makers see a visual representation of the spatial distribution of airflow irregularities and mold spores throughout the school. Based on information gathered from the GIS map, the school administrators replaced carpeting throughout the school with tile floors and thoroughly cleaned the entire duct system, which significantly improved ventilation in the classrooms. “What’s exciting is that we were able to provide information, education, and outreach directly to the faculty and school governance council,” says Marie Lynn Miranda, director of the Duke COEP. Another benefit of the study is the unique learning opportunity it will afford the New Hope Elementary students. All the data from the project will be turned over to the school’s fifth-grade science teachers for development into classroom lesson projects. COEP workers also plan to use the New Hope Elementary study as a model for future initiatives in childhood asthma prevention.

Health on the Banks of the Rio Grande

At the New Mexico Center for Environmental Health Sciences (NMCEHS), community concerns and relationships are as much at the center’s foundation as the latest research techniques. According to center director Scott Burchiel, the unique populations of New Mexico—including a high number of Hispanics and Native American tribes, pueblos, and sovereign nations—steer the center’s course. “One of the things we have tried to do is to determine what these populations’ concerns are for environmental health, because we want our center to be focused on environmental public health, and we want to work on basic research projects that address issues that people in this region are particularly interested in,” he says. Based in Albuquerque as a partnership of The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI), the NIEHS-funded center comprises major research cores in environmental cancer and oxidative stress, cardiovascular toxicology, environmental lung disease, and population health and epidemiology. The center also includes world-class facility cores (particularly for inhalation toxicology), a pilot project program to provide funding for small innovative research studies, and an unusually strong community outreach and education program (COEP). Community input is essential, as is trust. “We have investigators who may have certain interests for certain kinds of projects and want to work with communities,” says Burchiel. “But when we go to the community, we find out that [the community has] a different agenda, different interests. We’ve been learning how to work with communities since we’ve had this environmental health center.” It’s a process that involves a lot of development of community relationships and trust relationships. Burchiel says that investigating environmental health problems such as asthma requires a broad definition of environment. He says, “In our center, we define the environment quite broadly. It includes nutritional, social, behavioral, economic, and built environment components. . . . We have not only environmental epidemiologists [but] also social epidemiologists who help us look at social factors in assessing economic and poverty factors.”

Beyond the Bench: ToxRAP Makes the Connection

Environmental health professionals are made, not born. That’s the ideology behind the creation of ToxRAP™ (Toxicology, Risk Assessment, and Pollution), an interactive curriculum for grades kindergarten through 9. ToxRAP was designed to help students understand how elements of the environment around them affect their health. The lessons were developed by the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of the NIEHS Center of Excellence located at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, jointly sponsored by Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The core of the curriculum design is the ToxRAP Framework, which structures each lesson in a way that enables students to learn concepts central to the areas of toxicology, environmental health, risk assessment, and risk management. Under the framework, students identify a health problem, investigate the problem, reach a conclusion about what’s causing the problem, then figure out how to control the hazard. For example, in the lesson The Case of the WTC Dust, middle school students investigate health risks faced by fictitious New York City residents in ridding their building of toxic dust after the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center. When integrating the ToxRAP curriculum into their lesson plans, teachers use three modules that can be taught sequentially or independently of each other. They use math, health, science, and language arts activities that encourage the collection and organization of real information to be evaluated and analyzed using scientific evidence. Teaching tools and techniques include illustrated stories, games, graphing, cooperative group exercises, hands-on experiments, and case studies. Currently, ToxRAP reaches approximately 4,300 classrooms in 23 states, and the developers have recently trained teachers in Guam and Puerto Rico as well. In addition to the English modules, instructors in bilingual or English as a Second Language classrooms can also receive select portions of course content in Spanish. According to Laura Hemminger, codirector of the COEP, what makes the program unique is that it teaches younger students to independently evaluate environmental health problems, which empowers them to take some control of their own environmental exposures. Teachers admire the curriculum’s ability to facilitate the building of students’ critical thinking skills by making the learning experience challenging and entertaining. “ToxRAP is an excellent instructional model. It teaches children every aspect of the scientific method in an enjoyable, interesting way. When I tell students that it is time for science, they applaud! They take out their detective badges and notebooks, and they are ready to go to work,” says Laura Steinberg, a fifth-grade teacher in Fords, New Jersey. The developers of ToxRAP continue to expand the program, and are currently collaborating with an NIEHS small business grantee to create interactive activities to enhance ToxRAP’s utility in the classroom, and to make it available to students and their families at home. Also on the horizon is a website, additional curricular modules, and the use of student evaluations on the program’s materials to shape future curriculum content.

Beyond the Bench: Tox-in-a-Box

Vol. 113, No. 3 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Tox-in-a-Box Kris Freeman Kris Freeman Search for more papers by this author Published:1 March 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a162Cited by:1AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit The Tox Ambassador—a scientist visiting from a nearby university—squeezes several drops of blue dye into three different-sized beakers of water. The audience of sixth-grade students can easily see that although the same amount of dye is put in each beaker, the water in the smallest “baby” beaker turns much darker than that in the larger “big kid” and “adult” beakers. They are learning a key concept in toxicology: that your body size affects your dose, and that the dose makes the poison.Thousands of students have learned about environmental health science through presentations like these based on the Tox-in-a-Box™ resources kit, which includes activities for grades kindergarten through 12 (K–12), slides, demonstrations, instructions, tips for presenters, and a resource manual for teachers. The kit is designed for toxicologists and other environmental and public health professionals—Tox Ambassadors—to use in outreach efforts to students and teachers. It is produced and distributed by the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of the NIEHS Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health at the University of Washington.Tox-in-a-Box was originally developed by COEP staff at the request of environmental health professionals who had been invited to give presentations in classrooms and weren’t sure how to explain toxicology to young audiences. Soon COEP staff also began training graduate students to serve as Tox Ambassadors. Since 2000, Tox Ambassadors have given presentations to almost 4,000 K–12 students in western Washington. Many of these presentations have been made through the NIEHS/University of Washington Integrated Environmental Health Middle School Project ( http://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/Outreach/k12.html).When Carlos Mata, a former visiting scholar and Tox Ambassador, returned to his native country of Costa Rica, he launched a program similar to Tox-in-a-Box called EcoAmigos. The EcoAmigos program disseminates basic environmental health information in regional schools. Tox-in-a-Box kits have also been sent to collaborators at the University of Alexandria in Egypt.Tox-in-a-Box fits well with many modules such as environment, biology, chemistry, social studies, risk, safety, reading, and debate. Learning themes include Living in a Chemical World, Routes of Exposure, Risks vs. Benefits, and Tox Tales: A Real Life Component. Overall, teachers give the kit high marks for both the relevance of the material to the students’ interests and concerns, and the ease of integrating the material into the curriculum they already teach.Tox-in-a-Box kits are available for purchase. A brochure is available online at http://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/Outreach/pdf/tib.pdf.Good things in small packages. The Tox-in-a-Box kit (top) has everything needed for a school presentation (left).FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Gilbert S and Frevert K (2009) Public Education Information Resources in Toxicology, 10.1016/B978-0-12-373593-5.00073-2, (681-689), . Vol. 113, No. 3 March 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 March 2005Published in print1 March 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Beyond the Bench: Taking Action in Northern Manhattan

Vol. 113, No. 2 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Taking Action in Northern Manhattan Swati Prakash Swati Prakash Search for more papers by this author Published:1 February 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a96AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Residents of Northern Manhattan face exposure to a multitude of environmental hazards, ranging from those within the home (such as lead-based paint, pesticides, pest allergens, and mold) to a myriad of neighborhood exposures (including two sewage treatment plants and six out of seven of Manhattan’s diesel bus depots). Communities of Northern Manhattan also bear a disproportionate share of adverse health outcomes—including coronary heart disease and childhood asthma hospitalizations—that are potentially linked to these and other environmental exposures. Residents of Northern Manhattan have a rich history of organizing to promote health and challenge toxic environmental exposures, but have often lacked access to the technical and informational resources to help them understand and prioritize health risks. Now that roadblock is being dismantled.In 1997, community environmental health focus groups at three Northern Manhattan sites identified air pollution, garbage, water quality, asthma, exhaust from heavy traffic, indoor air quality, and quality-of-life issues as the most pressing environmental concerns for those communities. Based on these responses, the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of Columbia University’s NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan, in collaboration with community partners West Harlem Environmental Action and the Harlem Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, developed a program known as Environmental Health Leadership Training (EHLT).The goal of the EHLT is for community residents of Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx to improve their capacity to organize for community environmental health and justice in New York City. They do this by learning the scientific and regulatory foundation of environmental health issues affecting New Yorkers, as well as by learning basic organizing and advocacy skills to address health disparities in environmentally influenced health outcomes.Four rounds of this training, which has been expanded to a 24-credit-hour curriculum, were held between 1997 and 2004. The structure for each session was a combination of small group activities and lectures by Swati Prakash, COEP coordinator and the central trainer for the EHLT, and guest lecturers, primarily researchers from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. The training is designed to convey sophisticated technical and health information while remaining accessible to people from a variety of educational backgrounds, literacy levels, and ages. Upon graduation, leaders are given a 200-page manual with extensive written and visual resources on all the issues addressed in the training.To date, 85 community leaders have graduated from the training. Many EHLT graduates have gone on to play significant roles in setting public health policy at the citywide, statewide, and national level. EHLT participants testified in 1999 at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s public hearings on its draft heavy-duty diesel engines rule to reduce emissions of asthma-exacerbating diesel exhaust. The presence of EHLT graduates was, in fact, the sole counterbalance to heavy industry presence at the New York hearings. Several graduates have also become key leaders in a successful campaign to pass city legislation to better protect children from lead-based paint hazards in the home. Graduates of the most recent training are currently preparing to launch a Healthy Homes campaign to address endemic problems of mold and pesticide exposures in Northern Manhattan housing.The EHLT will continue with a citywide workshop in April. The COEP and its partners also hope to make the training available to other organizations by next year.Leaders in residence. COEP training helps build community leaders who can take charge on environmental issues.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 113, No. 2 February 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 February 2005Published in print1 February 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Beyond the Bench: Building Blocks of Learning

Vol. 113, No. 1 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Building Blocks of Learningis corrected byErrata Amy Fitzgerald Amy Fitzgerald Search for more papers by this author Published:1 January 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a33Cited by:2AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Playing with blocks has long been a favorite pastime of children and one that parents often encourage as a means of developing reasoning, spatial acuity, and other skills. A program developed by the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Environmental Health Studies turns this childhood pastime into an effective method for teaching students about DNA and cellular processes by building models out of LEGO blocks.Now a commercial product, the LEGO Life Science kits contain different-colored blocks representing the basic structural elements of DNA. So far, the kit series includes models of DNA, chromosomes, and photosynthesis. The kits were developed by Lexington public school teacher Kathleen Vandiver to bring the form and function of the double helix alive for middle-school students. Vandiver later joined the staff of the MIT COEP and has worked with the program to design a learning activity for students based on the kits called “The Shape of Life: From Helix to Chromosome.”The activity begins with students identifying LEGOs that represent molecules of sugar, phosphates, and nucleotide bases. Using these pieces, they construct their own twisting model of the DNA ladder, with careful attention to base pairing. A brief overview of DNA replication follows, using the LEGO DNA structure as a simulation aid. Students then have individual exploration time to answer questions and investigate variations of their DNA model. Teachers may also add a mutation lesson.Next, the students learn how DNA’s complex sequence is replicated prior to mitosis, and the lesson scales up to the LEGO Chromosomes kit to model the process of mitosis. The activity concludes with the study of structural components of chromosomes, including a discussion of genes and traits. With the Chromosomes kit, students can build a LEGO fish as a model to demonstrate how genes can be expressed in a living creature. The fish has only 3 chromosome pairs, rather than a human’s 23 pairs, so it’s easier to understand the relationship between genes and traits. Chromosomes, cell membranes, and spindle fibers are modeled in LEGOs as the students move through the stages of interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.The kits can be used to teach many levels of students. Although originally designed for middle schoolers, they can be reassembled into a more advanced version for use at the college level. Several introductory biology classes at MIT have used the sets. Says Vandiver, “It is important to realize that many people need to be taught the basics in order to understand the issues in environmental health.” And what could be more basic—or fun—than playing with blocks?The LEGO Life Science kits are available for purchase at http://www.legoeducationstore.com/.Constructive thinking. COEP researcher Luke Higgins (second from left) helps students build a DNA double helix from LEGOs.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Weaver H (2010) Native Americans and Cancer Risks: Moving Toward Multifaceted Solutions, Social Work in Public Health, 10.1080/19371910903240621, 25:3-4, (272-285), Online publication date: 28-Apr-2010. Petersen M, Halling J, Damkier P, Nielsen F, Grandjean P, Weihe P and Brøsen K (2006) Caffeine N3-demethylation (CYP1A2) in a population with an increased exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 10.1007/s00228-006-0205-0, 62:12, (1041-1048), Online publication date: 17-Nov-2006. Related articlesErrata1 April 2005Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 113, No. 1 January 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 January 2005Published in print1 January 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Beyond the Bench: Help Instead of Hype

Vol. 112, No. 17 EnvironewsOpen AccessBeyond the Bench: Help Instead of Hype Erin E. Dooley Erin E. Dooley Search for more papers by this author Published:1 December 2004https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.112-a992AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Breast cancer strikes 1 in 7 American women, making it the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the United States. Although certain genetic factors can play a part in the etiology of the disease, scientists are studying other important factors including estrogen-related factors, lifestyle choices, and environmental risk. Understanding these factors can help women make informed decisions about their health and avoid being another breast cancer statistic.Researchers at the NIEHS-funded Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility, housed in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, are leading the way in determining both the genetic and other causes of breast cancer. And the center’s Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP), headed by Frances M. Lynn, a professor of environmental sciences and engineering, has developed a workshop program to spread the word to North Carolina residents that they need not be helpless victims of this disease.To assist in developing the workshop, the COEP partnered with the Breast Cancer Coalition of North Carolina, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of those with breast cancer and their families. A scientific advisory board representing a variety of medical disciplines reviewed the workshop materials and continues to work with COEP staff to answer participants’ questions and keep the workshop as current as possible.Visitors to the center’s website can download the workshop materials at http://www.sph.unc.edu/cehs/outreach/elsi.htm. Visitors can download the 15-slide PowerPoint presentation that is used in the workshop, as well as an agenda, facilitator instructions, case studies, fact sheets, and take-home activities.The presentation introduces the workshop audience to the known possible risk factors for breast cancer, as well as some risk-reduction measures women can take. The presentation divides risk factors into four groups: personal or estrogen-related risk, lifestyle risk, environmental risk, and genetic or inherited risk.The environmental risk portion of the presentation explains gene–environment interactions that occur as a result of exposure to toxicants and how that differs from risk associated with inheriting one of the so-called breast cancer genes (BRCA1 or BRCA2). Despite the frightening prospect of breast cancer running in families, only 5–10% of breast cancer cases are thought to be genetic in origin. Slides describe instances where this inherited risk may be implicated in breast cancer. Participants also learn about the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic testing—how the testing is done, how they should decide if they need it, and what may happen if they test positive.The interactive portion of the workshop includes fun learning activities, such as Reduce Breast Cancer Bingo, which has been a hit with the senior citizens that have taken part in the program to date. Participants win when they correctly identify four risk-reduction facts in a row, including the importance of exercising, eating vegetables, and limiting exposure to secondhand smoke. A related activity presents participants with fictional case studies for three women, one with a family history of breast cancer, one with lifestyle risk factors, and one with environmental risk factors. Participants are asked to identify both the risk factors and any protective factors each women has, and to recommend how each woman might reduce her risk.The workshop, which has been conducted across North Carolina, has been developed so that women who have completed it know not only how to better care for themselves but also how to advise other women. In conducting the workshops, COEP staff hope to dispel some of the myths women have about breast cancer and instill optimism instead.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 112, No. 17 December 2004Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 December 2004Published in print1 December 2004 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Environmental Health Science in the Classroom

The Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Center at Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit Michigan, was established in 1993 to study the effects of environmental factors on human health. The EHS Center and its membership form a highly interactive multidisciplinary team of scientists and physicians from several hospitals and research facilities in and around WSU. Because of its diverse array of expertise, the EHS Center is in an optimal position to bring the knowledge of highly contemporary biomedical technologies to the K-12 educational community. The EHS Center has an extremely active Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) that facilitates the transfer of environmental health information into benefical programs for the educational community. The COEP has offered several programs to the local five-country area around WSU for the past six years. Included in these offerings are a constructivist, inquiry-based hands-on curriculum for grades K-12 (Chemicals in My World TM ), a web-based multimedia interactive curriculum for grades 9-12 (Environmental Cyber Schoolhouse), Saturday Institutes for middle school students; and an apprenticeship program for upper level high school students and teachers. Evaluation of these programs has indicated that they have had significant success in providing venues for information on various environmental health-related topics and biomedical techniques. The COEP will continue to offer programs and opportunities in all areas of environmental health education for students in grades K-12 and for teacher professional development.