Environmental Health Sciences Center Research Articles

Community-Engaged Research and the Use of Open Access ToxVal/ToxRef In Vivo Databases and New Approach Methodologies (NAM) to Address Human Health Risks From Environmental Contaminants.

The paper analyzes opportunities for integrating Open access resources (Abstract Sifter, US EPA and NTP Toxicity Value and Toxicity Reference [ToxVal/ToxRefDB]) and New Approach Methodologies (NAM) integration into Community Engaged Research (CEnR). CompTox Chemicals Dashboard and Integrated Chemical Environment with in vivo ToxVal/ToxRef and NAMs (in vitro) databases are presented in three case studies to show how these resources could be used in Pilot Projects involving Community Engaged Research (CEnR) from the University of California, Davis, Environmental Health Sciences Center. Case #1 developed a novel assay methodology for testing pesticide toxicity. Case #2 involved detection of water contaminants from wildfire ash and Case #3 involved contaminants on Tribal Lands. Abstract Sifter/ToxVal/ToxRefDB regulatory data and NAMs could be used to screen/prioritize risks from exposure to metals, PAHs and PFAS from wildfire ash leached into water and to investigate activities of environmental toxins (e.g., pesticides) on Tribal lands. Open access NAMs and computational tools can apply to detection of sensitive biological activities in potential or known adverse outcome pathways to predict points of departure (POD) for comparison with regulatory values for hazard identification. Open access Systematic Empirical Evaluation of Models or biomonitoring exposures are available for human subpopulations and can be used to determine bioactivity (POD) to exposure ratio to facilitate mitigation. These resources help prioritize chemical toxicity and facilitate regulatory decisions and health protective policies that can aid stakeholders in deciding on needed research. Insights into exposure risks can aid environmental justice and health equity advocates.

Human milk antibodies to global pathogens reveal geographic and interindividual variations in IgA and IgG.

BACKGROUNDThe use of high-throughput technologies has enabled rapid advancement in the knowledge of host immune responses to pathogens. Our objective was to compare the repertoire, protection, and maternal factors associated with human milk antibodies to infectious pathogens in different economic and geographic locations.METHODSUsing multipathogen protein microarrays, 878 milk and 94 paired serum samples collected from 695 women in 5 high and low-to-middle income countries (Bangladesh, Finland, Peru, Pakistan, and the United States) were assessed for specific IgA and IgG antibodies to 1,607 proteins from 30 enteric, respiratory, and bloodborne pathogens.RESULTSThe antibody coverage across enteric and respiratory pathogens was highest in Bangladeshi and Pakistani cohorts and lowest in the U.S. and Finland. While some pathogens induced a dominant IgA response (Campylobacter, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, Cryptosporidium, and pertussis), others elicited both IgA and IgG antibodies in milk and serum, possibly related to the invasiveness of the infection (Shigella, enteropathogenic E. coli "EPEC", Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Group B Streptococcus). Besides the differences between economic regions and decreases in concentrations over time, human milk IgA and IgG antibody concentrations were lower in mothers with high BMI and higher parity, respectively. In Bangladeshi infants, a higher specific IgA concentration in human milk was associated with delayed time to rotavirus infection, implying protective properties of antirotavirus antibodies, whereas a higher IgA antibody concentration was associated with greater incidence of Campylobacter infection.CONCLUSIONThis comprehensive assessment of human milk antibody profiles may be used to guide the development of passive protection strategies against infant morbidity and mortality.FUNDINGBill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant OPP1172222 (to KMJ); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant OPP1066764 funded the MDIG trial (to DER); University of Rochester CTSI and Environmental Health Sciences Center funded the Rochester Lifestyle study (to RJL); and R01 AI043596 funded PROVIDE (to WAP).

Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy by Alex Sayf Cummings

Reviewed by: Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy by Alex Sayf Cummings Karen A. Rader (bio) Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Idea of the Idea Economy By Alex Sayf Cummings. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. Pp. 248. In 1868, when Jefferson Davis first articulated the idea that the U.S. South "shall rise again," he could not have imagined one of its forms as a high-tech university-business partnership in North Carolina. And yet, more than a century later, an unlikely band of suburban developers and university leaders envisioned and built the so-called Research Triangle Park (RTP) as a means of transforming what was once deemed "cornbread country" (p. 77) into an organized series of "knowledge work" towns and cities, one of which bore the nickname "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees" (p. 135). In Brain Magnet, Alex Sayf Cummings gives scholars and local historians a fascinating and well-written account of this historical moment and its importance for the historiography of technology and capitalism by "employing a distinctive method: refracting the story of broad changes in the nature of capitalism through concepts of space and place" (p. 6). Chapter 1 analyzes the design and building of the RTP as a Cold War–era Southern creative city, a site of "self-invention and audacious boosterism" (p. 21). Coming to terms with North Carolina's transitioning postwar population trends (with many African Americans leaving the state) and socioeconomic woes (like low wages and poor schools), business elites partnered with university and government leaders to conceive and promote the idea of the RTP as a geographic enclave—"a concentration of technological and scientific infrastructure and of social capital which was possessed by skilled workers" (p. 47). Chapter 2 chronicles the rise of the idea of the "knowledge worker," as it was first embedded in and later drew strength from the paired view of the RTP as a frontier for creating a "whole new economic sector: research" (p. 56). Cummings observes that research was always meant to bolster the economy through expanding educational opportunities and employment, but he also suggests that the RTP's long-term success came at an early price. Planners had to make a "major compromise in their vision of an anti-industrial space for intellectual labor" (p. 67) by welcoming applied research powerhouse tenants like the federally funded National Environmental Health Sciences Center, as well as corporations like IBM and Technitrol. Chapter 3 recounts what happened in the 1960s when more RTP knowledge workers came to live nearby: wealthy black executives and middle-class scientists struggled to reconcile boosters' promises of social enlightenment and good race relations with their own experiences of "blockbusting" in [End Page 638] the new surrounding suburbs. Chapter 4 pairs analysis of the design of two 1970s-era RTP buildings—the Burroughs Wellcome Building (1971) and the National Humanities Center (1978)—as "profoundly rigorous and intentional" (p. 105) embodiments of new forms of knowledge work, engineered to house intellectual resources abstractly, as "brains in a luminous structure in a suburban landscape" (p. 119). Finally, the book's last chapters return to the cities within the Triangle—Cary (ch. 5) and Raleigh-Durham (ch. 6) as paired emblems of "the good boring life" and the further displacement that the RTP's gentrification mandate wrought. The RTP became, in one of the author's most memorable sound-bite assessments, "a Jetsons success in a hipster era" (p. 184). Cummings's epilogue returns to the figure of the knowledge worker, quoting and reflecting on its place in what a 2017 journalist deemed the "lanyard-based class system" (p. 198) of the twenty-first-century tech economy. Brain Magnet, by the author's own assessment, "is in, but not of, Southern history. It is about the way we think about and imagine the economy, what the economy is, where the economy should go and, above all, who matters" (p. 17). In this way, Cummings's book both builds on existing studies of regional knowledge hubs (like Lily Geismer's account of Boston's Route 128 and Margaret O'Mara's work on Silicon Valley) and contributes new insights to...

Well Played: Using Game App Data to Assess Wildfire Smoke and Cognitive Performance

Well Played: Using Game App Data to Assess Wildfire Smoke and Cognitive Performance

Food for Thought: Exploring the Relationship between Exposure, Dietary Patterns, and Changes in Brain Volume.

Food for Thought: Exploring the Relationship between Exposure, Dietary Patterns, and Changes in Brain Volume.

Characterization of Extracellular Vesicle LINE‐1 mRNA, Protein, and Reverse Transcriptase Activity Profiles

Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate among all cancers, making early detection of this malignancy imperative for survival. Ongoing studies in our laboratory have focused on developing Long Interspersed Nuclear Element‐1 (LINE‐1) in circulating lung extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a novel mechanism‐based ‘liquid biopsy’ for lung cancer. LINE‐1 is a mammalian retroelement that can ‘copy and paste’ itself and other DNAs into different loci via a reverse transcriptase‐mediated mechanism. While LINE‐1 is epigenetically silenced in most healthy cells, its activity can be initiated by harmful environmental exposures and is strongly associated with cancer risk and mortality. Evidence is presented here that LINE‐1 mRNA and protein are present in EVs isolated from H460 lung cancer cells and human plasma and are segregated into distinct EV populations. Because reverse transcription (RT) of LINE‐1 requires formation of a ribonucleoprotein complex containing LINE‐1 mRNA and proteins, we hypothesize that this segregation has been engineered to control RT. In support of this hypothesis, we found that RT activity is only present when these two EV populations are lysed and combined. We then isolated EVs from ostensibly healthy plasma donors and found substantial inter‐individual variability with respect to LINE‐1 protein, mRNA, and RT activity. The variability between individuals and the ease of measurement from clinical samples further supports the use of these LINE‐1 metrics as health‐related biomarkers. After characterizing EV LINE‐1, we sought to determine whether EV LINE‐1 levels could serve as a proxy of cellular LINE‐1 content, which is critical to our overall goal of using isolated lung EVs as a liquid biopsy of the lung epithelium. Using a panel of six different lung epithelial cell lines, we compared baseline LINE‐1 expression between cells and EVs. We also treated lung epithelial cells with different concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), a cigarette smoke carcinogen known to induce LINE‐1, and compared LINE‐1 levels in cells and EVs. Thus far we discovered that, in both baseline and toxicant‐induced scenarios, EV LINE‐1 mRNA levels mirror cellular levels. Together, these data demonstrate that EV LINE‐1 content and RT activity can be quantified in cultured cells and clinical samples and supports the use of EV LINE‐1 cargo as a biomarker of lung epithelial cell status.Support or Funding InformationThis work was funded in part by grants from the University of Arizona Health Sciences, the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (P30 ES006694), the National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA023074), the UAZ Bio5 Fellowship and GURI Texas.

Altered Cisplatin Pharmacokinetics during Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Contributes to Reduced Nephrotoxicity

Cisplatin is an alkylating antineoplastic agent that is indicated for the treatment of solid malignancies. Cisplatin is preferentially eliminated from systemic circulation via tubular secretion, whereby it exhibits dose‐limiting nephrotoxicity. Interindividual variability in xenobiotic transporter expression is a known contributor to differential cisplatin toxicity and efficacy, and may be the result of genetic, environmental, and pathological contributions. In this study, we aimed to determine if nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) alters cisplatin pharmacokinetics and if this change elicits differential nephrotoxicity. Sprague Dawley rats fed a control or methionine and choline deficient (MCD) diet to model NASH were given a single bolus dose of cisplatin and sacrificed after 72 h. The MCD diet resulted in a NASH hepatic phenotype that remained unchanged following cisplatin exposure. Drug‐naïve NASH rats also displayed no evidence of differential renal pathology relative to control rats. However, renal necrosis and inflammation were reduced in NASH by 40 and 63% following cisplatin treatment, respectively, relative to healthy controls. Furthermore, kidney weights of cisplatin‐treated control rats were increased by 31%, compared to an 18% increase in NASH. Plasma cisplatin clearance was reduced from 6.78 (control) to 4.04 mL/min in NASH, and cisplatin plasma AUC was significantly increased by 44% in NASH, relative to control. Cumulative urinary elimination of cisplatin was decreased from 73 to 34% of total dose and renal clearance was reduced from 4.64 to 1.49 mL/min in NASH, compared to control. Subsequently, renal intracellular accumulation of cisplatin after 6 h was reduced by 34% in NASH, relative to control. Supporting these findings, expression of proximal tubule cisplatin uptake transporters, Ctr1 and Ctr2, were reduced by 24 and 64%, respectively compared to healthy control rats, whereas expression of Oct1, Oct2, and Oct3 were unchanged. Interestingly, expression of cisplatin efflux transporters Mate1 and Atp7a were reduced by 52 and 31%, respectively, in NASH compared to control. Taken together, these data suggest that NASH alters renal uptake and efflux transporter expression, thereby attenuating cisplatin uptake and clearance in the kidney with a corresponding reduction in renal cell exposure and nephrotoxicity during NASH. As such, this study demonstrates that NASH can influence pharmacokinetics of drugs cleared by renal elimination, which may contribute to adverse drug reactions.Support or Funding InformationThis work is supported by a NIH grant [R01 ES028668] and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center [P30 ES006694]. JLJ is supported by an institutional training grant [T32 ES007091].

Measuring Partnership Activities: Partnerships in Environmental Public Health Evaluation Metrics Manual

Measuring Partnership Activities: Partnerships in Environmental Public Health Evaluation Metrics Manual

CHILDREN’S HEALTH: Gene Variants May Predict Lung Health

Genetic research is beginning to provide potential insights on why some people are more vulnerable than others to various pollutants. Now a few more pieces can be added to the extraordinarily complex puzzle. In the April 2009 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers from the University of Southern California report that several inherited glutathione S−transferase (GST) gene variants were associated with lung function growth during adolescence, and one variant helped predict poor lung function in children whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy. GST genes are expressed in the lungs, among other organs, and may influence the development of normal lung function. This study focused on a class of GST genes called GSTMs. The best studied of these is GSTM1, which has been implicated in lung cancer, asthma, and other respiratory diseases in children and adults. To find out more about other variants, the authors looked at GSTM2, GSTM3, GSTM4, and GSTM5. They analyzed the genotypes in conjuction with eight years’ worth of lung function and genotyping data from 2,108 Southern California schoolchildren, starting around age 10 years. For GSTM2, two common haplotypes (patterns of genetic variation) were observed. One haplotype found in 28% of non−Hispanic whites and 44% of Hispanic whites was associated with better lung development than other haplotypes, whereas a second haplotype found in 35% of non−Hispanic whites and 30% of Hispanic whites was associated with significantly less lung function growth over time. Deficits in measures of lung function growth were twice as big in children with two copies of the haplotype versus those with one copy, and the deficits associated with this haplotype were greater among children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy. The presence of a GSTM4 haplotype found in 22% of non−Hispanic whites and 16% of Hispanic whites was associated with significantly reduced lung function growth relative to children with other haplotypes. As with the GSTM2 variant above, deficits in lung function growth were doubled among children with 2 copies of the haplotype. A GSTM3 haplotype found in about 7% of the children was associated with a deficit in one of three measures of lung function growth. The authors believe this to be the first study to report evidence of an interaction between GSTM2 variants and prenatal tobacco smoke exposure on lung function growth. They noted that GSTM genes are expressed in fetal tissue at relatively low levels, and GSTs and other phase II (detoxification) enzymes are relatively inactive in fetal tissue compared with phase I enzymes (which activate toxic metabolites and carcinogens). “This suggests that fetuses are much more susceptible to environmental exposures than adults,” they wrote. “Genetic polymorphisms in phase II enzymes that further inhibit enzyme activity may exacerbate this susceptibility.” In addition, respiratory health and development in childhood is known to play an important role in adult respiratory health. This study “points out again that the genetic makeup of a population may be very important when considering health risks from environmental exposures,” says principal investigator Frank Gilliland, who directs the NIEHS−supported Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Southern California. His team speculates that GSTM−influenced failure to detoxify reactive oxygen species reduces lung protection and triggers an inflammatory cascade, bronchial constriction, and airway hyperresponsiveness, producing asthma−like symptoms and impaired lung development. However, more information would be needed before public health officials could set or adjust regulatory standards based on variation in vulnerability among subpopulations. And even with such additional data, Medea Imboden, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Zurich, cautions against overemphasizing the GST gene family. “You always have doubts about the functional relevance of the variants,” says Imboden. “If you think of all the genes not yet known to contribute to respiratory health and bodily defense systems against air pollutants, GSTs might turn out to play a minor role.” But for now, she adds, “they are good candidates.”

Global Trade Comes Home: Community Impacts of Goods Movement

For many U.S. residents, 2007 was a year of heightened awareness of some of the problems of global trade. Extensive recalls of melamine-tainted pet food in the spring followed by even larger toy recalls in the summer and fall raised consumer concerns about how the United States can ensure the safety of products shipped in from overseas. The Salt Lake Tribune and the Wall Street Journal detailed injuries and illnesses threatening the health of Chinese workers making products for export to the United States. And on 15 December 2007, a New York Times feature detailed the practice of farming fish in toxic Chinese waters for export to the United States and other countries. While these news stories demonstrate some of the pitfalls of globalization, much less attention has focused on air pollution and other community-level impacts in the United States, as toys, electronics, food, and other imports travel through ports, then to trucks, trains, warehouses, and stores in a complex system called “goods movement.” Along the route, residents are exposed to diesel exhaust and other vehicle emissions, noise from truck-congested roads, bright lights from round-the-clock operations, and other potential health threats. Transportation experts refer to these impacts simply as “externalities” of transport, but to community residents they can directly harm the quality of daily life. As ports and goods movement activity expands throughout the United States, a major challenge is how to make its health and community impacts a more central part of policy discussions.

Beyond the Bench: Healthy Home, Healthy Community

We like to think of home as a safe haven, but sometimes this shelter can harbor a wide range of health hazards. Children living in urban, low-income, and minority neighborhoods are often at greater risk of exposure to home-based health hazards than other groups, but implementing affordable, effective methods to alleviate the risk can be challenging. A new interactive museum housed in a residential property in Rochester, New York, now offers children and adults hands-on, real-world examples of hidden hazards in the home along with guidelines on simple preventive measures. For more than two years, the Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) of the University of Rochester and its community partners, the Southwest Area Neighborhood Association (SWAN) and the Rochester Fatherhood Resource Initiative (RFRI), worked together to develop an easily accessible, community-based program that would promote environmental health in the home. In June 2006 they launched the Rochester Healthy Home museum. Eleanor Coleman, SWAN’s community asset manager, explains, “We have found that community residents respond better to hands-on education than to printed materials.” Katrina Korfmacher, the center’s Community Outreach and Education Core coordinator, adds, “Our role was to bring together the existing resources within the community, develop the technical information for displays, and support the initial setup of the Healthy Home.” Korfmacher says the center and its community partners spent several months locating a residential building that was large enough to accommodate groups of visitors, solving commercial zoning issues, and finding a landlord who was amenable to such a unique project. The Healthy Home is located adjacent to the historic Susan B. Anthony neighborhood in a community with high poverty, a low number of owner-occupants, and one of the highest lead poisoning rates in the city. The neighborhood location is important to SWAN outreach coordinator Shehrina Tabassum, who says, “We wanted it to be accessible to low-income residents who might not be able to travel across town to visit a Healthy Home.” According to a 2002 report by the Center for Governmental Research, 34% of the children living in the SouthWest neighborhood represented by SWAN have blood lead concentrations above the CDC “threshold of concern” of 10 μg/dL. James Richardson, president of a residents’ group called the Lennox Street Block Club, notes that many of the century-old homes in this area have environmental hazards and that nearby residents will benefit from the interactive displays at the Healthy Home. “When it is hands-on, people seem to believe it a little more,” he says. The partners focused on some of the major risks present in many homes—asthma triggers, lead hazards, household chemicals such as pesticides and cleaners, and indoor air quality hazards—to create topical posters and hands-on displays. For example, the “Lead Room” has three display windows that demonstrate different methods for treating painted window frames for lead hazards, including instructions and cost information for lead-safe work practices to minimize the disturbance of lead-based paint. The “Asthma Safe Bedroom” displays pillowcase covers and other asthma trigger reduction tools, and offers tips for avoiding mold growth along with other appropriate housekeeping guidelines. In the kitchen, visitors find displays explaining the risks of exposure to certain common household chemicals as well as tips for safe handling and storage. The Healthy Home also educates visitors about potential causes of injuries such as electrical shock and choking hazards, as well as possible carbon monoxide poisoning risks such as defective furnaces. With emphasis on the idea that creating a healthy home environment is a shared responsibility, the partnership encourages visits from all community stakeholders. In its first six months of operation, the Healthy Home has welcomed more than 400 visitors, including residents, students of all ages, teachers, contractors, property owners, and elected officials, all of whom can apply the lessons learned in the museum to their respective community roles. The Healthy Home hosts outreach activities such as support group meetings (for example, for families of asthmatic children), neighborhood block group meetings, and free safe practices training courses (by the end of 2006, 67 people had received training in a series of lead safety courses). The partnership also conducts community presentations and distributes information at health fairs on the topics covered in the Healthy Home. Admission to the Healthy Home is free, and guided tours are available. In the near future, the partners plan to increase outreach efforts through youth programs, home health visiting nurses, and others. Meanwhile, center staff are evaluating the impact of the Healthy Home on visitors’ knowledge and behaviors, and are writing a guide to help other communities develop similar facilities. For More Information http://www2.envmed.rochester.edu/envmed/ehsc/outreach/CommunityPartners/CommunityPartnersHH.html

The Forum Theatre of Augusto Boal: A Dramatic Model for Dialogue and Community-Based Environmental Science

Community oriented environmental science combines the inclusive, action-oriented goals of environmental justice communities and the rationalist methodologies of science in an effort to balance urgent social and physical needs with research protocols, precise analysis and carefully measured conclusions. Community-based participatory research acknowledges that local expertise and networks, adverse social and economic consequences of environmental degradation and community beliefs and attitudes are vital factors that affect both overall community health and research outcomes. A unique CBPR approach to inclusive outreach and education is Community Environmental Forum Theatre (CEFT), developed through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch/Galveston TX. CEFT integrates the dramaturgy of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and the democratizing dialogic process of Paulo Freire into the design and implementation of environmental health research, community health care and education. CEFT projects throughout the Texas petrochemical belt have used this form of interactive workshop and energized public performance to increase knowledge of toxicological concepts, develop risk awareness, extend and strengthen coalitions, create action agendas and promote community advocacy skills. Boal image-making techniques help to deconstruct concepts such as exposure pathways, dose response, differential susceptibilities, multiple stressors/cumulative risk and the healthy worker effect. Image-based ethnographies provide insight into risk perceptions, risk communication outcomes and overarching community dynamics impacting environmental justice. CEFT project efficacy is evaluated via a multi-frame process focused on goals specific to the roles of the scientific/environmental health outreach specialist, the community development artist/practitioner and the advocate for environmental health and justice issues.

Beyond the Bench: Keeping Kids’ Environments Safe

A safe home environment is the first line of defense in protecting children’s health. And since many kids spend a great amount of time in schools and child care facilities, safeguarding their health in those places is also essential. The Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) of the Environmental Health Sciences Center in Molecular and Cellular Toxicology with Human Applications at Wayne State University, in collaboration with the Detroit Head Start and the EPA, has developed the Healthy Homes = Healthy Kids Train-the-Trainer Program to ensure that parents and other caregivers receive information that allows them to create a hazard-free atmosphere for kids. These participants can then pass information along to other parents and caregivers. By training the trainer, the program ensures that a larger number of teachers and caregivers, and ultimately, children can be effectively reached and introduced to the basic concepts of environmental health science.

Beyond the Bench: Tracking Clues with Environmental Health Sleuths

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Add in detailed, interactive information on the latest environmental health research, and you’ve got the basic concept behind Unsolved Mysteries of Human Health: How Scientists Study Toxic Chemicals, a project developed by the Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) of the Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) and Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center (MFBSC) at Oregon State University. The Unsolved Mysteries website (http://www.unsolvedmysteries.oregon-state.edu/) was launched in 2005 as a supplement to provide information on the analytical instruments and techniques featured in the Hydroville Curriculum Project, a problem-based environmental health science curriculum for high school students [see “Beyond the Bench: Welcome to Hydroville!” EHP 112:A166 (2004)]. Since then, the Unsolved Mysteries website has grown into an independent, informative teaching tool in its own right. “Unsolved Mysteries offers a great opportunity to highlight research at the EHSC and MFBSC at Oregon State while delivering a balance between scientific accuracy and a nontechnical explanation of very complex concepts,” says COEC program coordinator Sandra Uesugi. The core used input from EHSC investigators to develop two modules to date. Each provides information on techniques used in basic chemistry, environmental health research, and toxicology via an “unsolved mystery” based on real research scenarios. In “The Answers Are Blowing in the Wind,” the reader meets Jenny, who hikes to the top of a mountain but finds the view blocked by haze. While atop the hazy mountain, Jenny encounters Robert, an Oregon State graduate student taking air samples. Jenny’s experience with unexpected haze at the mountaintop sets the stage for a discussion of semivolatile chemicals, their atmospheric transport across long distances to high elevations, and the use of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to analyze trace amounts of chemicals in the air. Then students analyze the mass spectrum data from Robert’s air samples to solve the puzzle of whether the haze blew in over the water to the west or came from forest fires to the east. In “Going With the Flow,” the reader meets Joe, who plans to catch some fish for dinner. At the fishing spot, he notices a sign warning that the fish in that area may contain elevated levels of dioxin and should be eaten only once a month. Joe wants to learn more about dioxin and its health effects, so the game warden refers him to the Oregon State EHSC. The module tells how the scientists there use flow cytometry to study immune damage. Students then compare mouse histogram data to unravel the puzzle of dioxin’s effects on the immune system. Each module includes a “Meet Real Scientists!” section that introduces the investigators behind the research. The web-site also features virtual tours of each researcher’s lab so visitors can see examples of the tools discussed. In addition, there is a detailed glossary of technical terms and a link to additional resources. Although the content is written for high school students, the information is also appropriate for the general public, and the site has proved to be popular not only with students but also others surfing the web. “Our inquiries have come from many diverse backgrounds including an agriculture professor in Oman teaching an instruments course, a medical school professor giving a lecture on endocrinology, a hematologist at a hospital in Cambridge, United Kingdom, a home-schooled student, and a graduate student considering a future in toxicology research,” says Uesugi. As a testament to its value, Unsolved Mysteries received the Digital Dozen Award from the Eisenhower National Clearing-house in March 2005, an honor given to exemplary websites for educators that feature current, accurate math and/or science content, that support school improvement efforts, and that have useful multimedia features or helpful navigation. The Oregon State COEC continues to build on the website’s accomplishments by keeping the information fresh and engaging. An upcoming Unsolved Mysteries module will highlight the use of microarray techniques, focusing on zebrafish embryos as a model for understanding chemical toxicity and the impact of developmental toxicants on human health. Be ready to solve the next Unsolved Mystery in spring 2006!

Beyond the Bench: COEPs Contribute to Hurricane Relief

The conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita reminded us all of our commonality in the human experience and moved many to help. Among those moved to help were the staff at the Community Outreach and Education Programs (COEPs) of NIEHS Centers across the country. Responding to communities in need is one of the primary functions of the COEPs, so providing outreach to those areas on the Gulf Coast impacted by the hurricanes seemed a natural step to take. “When our director volunteered our COEP [to lead efforts], we remarked that if COEPs had never existed, they would have had to be invented on August 28,” says Pamela Diamond, director of the NIEHS Center COEP at University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. Adds Robin Fuchs-Young, director of the COEP of the Center for Research on Environmental Disease at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC), “All of us saw what was happening on television and felt compelled on a human level to help in whatever way we could.”

Beyond the Bench: Problems along the New “Silk Road”

The inexpensive sweater you buy in New Jersey, the bargain dresser you buy in Wisconsin, and the low-cost toys you buy in Ohio all have one thing in common: most likely they were made in Asia, and chances are they entered the United States through a Southern California port. These consumer goods may be easy on the pocketbook, and thriving international trade may be good for the economy, but the environment is seeing some serious impacts. Today the NIEHS-funded Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC) is working to raise awareness about these impacts. The center is a partnership between investigators at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. The adjacent twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have become the world’s third largest port complex, flooding the region with imported cargo containers, which are transported by big-rig diesel trucks and by ships and freight trains operating on low-grade fuel. The booming trade has made the ports the region’s number-one source of air pollution. And the ports keep growing, creating a need for expanded freeways and larger intermodal facilities where containers are moved from trucks onto trains. Emissions from foreign-flagged ships (nearly all ships entering the two ports) are currently unregulated, constituting a major concern for residents in the port communities. Residents along truck-congested freeways and rail routes are also impacted. “We have homes and parks right next to the rail yard,” says Angelo Logan, director of the grassroots organization East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, “and sometimes locomotives idle here for hours.” The SCEHSC, spurred by community concerns raised at a 2001 Town Meeting it sponsored, has been dedicating significant attention to these global trade impacts. Through the center’s Community Outreach and Education Program, center investigators and outreach staff are raising awareness of the need to reduce trade-related air pollution and better protect residents from the surge in such pollution. Center investigators outreach staff have present ed data to elected officials on air pollution’s respiratory effects on children. Among these are the results of the 10-year longitudinal Children’s Health Study (directed by SCEHSC director John Peters), which shows a larger propor tion of children in more polluted communities suffering lung function deficits, with lifelong health significance. Staff have also testified on the health effects of exposure to diesel exhaust at hearings to ban idling of diesel trucks at the ports, to triple the capacity of a freeway that goes through dozens of low-income, primarily Latino communities, and to construct huge trucking distribution centers in Riverside, one of the country’s most polluted cities. Center member Ed Avol serves as an appointee to the Mayor of Los Angeles’ special task force on port emissions, which was convened in October 2004. The center recently published a policy brief looking at the need to place a higher priority on health when key development decisions are made—for example, in regards to expansion of ports, rail freeways, or warehouses. And center member John Froines and outreach director Andrea Hricko discussed the impacts of global trade on local communities at the November 2003 roundtable discussion “Globalization, International Trade, and Environmental Health,” sponsored by the Institute Medicine of the National Academies. Center staff are also working directly with community members, for example by taking high school and college students on tours of the ports and teaching them how to take ultrafine particle measurements. The center is also cosponsoring a Town Meeting in February 2005 with a theme of “Local and Regional Health Impacts of the Ports and Global Trade.”

Community outreach as an iterative dialogue among scientists and communities in the Texas gulf coast region.

In response to significant environmental health challenges in Southeast Texas, a National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was created to promote and conduct inter-disciplinary research in the areas of: (1) the molecular biology of DNA repair, replication and mutagenesis, (2) asthma pathogenesis in response to oxidative stress and viral exposures, and (3) environmental toxicant biotransformation. In addition, the NIEHS Center maintains close ties with neighboring communities through an active Community Outreach & Education Program (COEP) that develops and disseminates translational materials for use in environmental health awareness outreach, toxicology consultation, K-12 curriculum enrichment and in developing site-specific Community Partnership projects. The COEP core service divisions include: Environmental Arts & Sciences, Asthma Outreach & Education, Theater Outreach & Education, and Public Forum & Toxics Assistance. Public Forums focus on the use of Augusto Boal's Forum Theater dramaturgy to include the voices and local knowledge of communities within the process of Participatory Research. Forums create the preconditions for significant partnerships that link the hazardous risk perceptions and environmental health needs of communities with the expertise of NIEHS Center investigators and translational services provided through COEP outreach programs. The Forum process also creates leadership cores within environmentally challenged communities that facilitate the ongoing translational process and maintain the vital linkage between the health needs of communities and the analytic tools and the field and clinical technologies of the environmental sciences.

Nutrient Combo Boosts Memory—At Least in Rats

Nutrient Combo Boosts Memory—At Least in Rats

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.

Hydroville Curriculum Project: A Successful Toxicology Outreach Program for High School Teachers and Students in Oregon

Headlines such as Herbicide Spill Leaves Hundreds of Fish Dead in Creek, Bacteria Foul School Air Forcing Four Rooms to Close and Shut off Drinking Fountains: Excessive Levels of Lead Found in Schools are being seen with increasing frequency in Oregon newspapers, as well as in news reports nationwide. Helping students understand the science behind these headlines has been the focus of an ongoing collaboration at Oregon State University between the Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Center and the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) Program. This article will discuss this highly successful outreach effort employed by the EHS Center and the SMILE Program to increase the understanding of environmental health science by teachers, students, and community members. It also elaborates on the educational model developed and employed by the SMILE Program and then provides a specific example from the Hydroville Curriculum Project of how an environmental health science scenario ...