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2002 Progress Report: Inner City Toxicants and Neurodevelopmental Impairment
EPA Grant Number: R827039Center: Mount Sinai Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research
Center Director: Wolff, Mary S.
Title: Inner City Toxicants and Neurodevelopmental Impairment
Investigators: Wolff, Mary S.
Institution: Mount Sinai School of Medicine
EPA Project Officer: Fields, Nigel
Project Period: August 1, 1998 through July 31, 2003 (Extended to July 31, 2004)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2001 through July 31, 2002
Project Amount: $3,136,392
RFA: Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (1998)
Research Category: Children's Health , Health Effects
Description:
Objective:Environmental Toxicants and Neuro-Developmental Impairment in Inner City Children is the unifying scientific theme of the Mount Sinai Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research. This Center resides within the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, in the Division of Environmental Health Science.
Children living in poverty in inner-city communities suffer some of the heaviest exposures to environmental toxicants in the United States. The goals of the Mount Sinai Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research are (1) to identify linkages between environmental toxicants and neuro-developmental dysfunction in inner-city children; (2) to elucidate the pathogenic mechanisms by which environmental toxicants can cause developmental impairment; and (3) to prevent neuro-developmental dysfunction of environmental origin in urban children.
The research and prevention programs of the Center will focus on a range of neurodevelopmental toxicants encountered in the inner city: (1) pesticides-legal insecticides such as chlorpyrifos, and illegal "street" pesticides such as methyl Darathion. tres pasitos and tiza china; (2) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and (3) lead. Patterns of exposure to these toxicants will be assessed. Adverse developmental outcomes will be examined through epidemiological studies and will include loss of intelligence, delayed attainment of developmental milestones, alteration of behavior and diminished life achievement; potential linkages of these problems to environmental exposures will be studied and etiologic mechanisms elucidated. New aDDroaches to prevention will be evaluated.
The Center includes five interdisciplinary research projects that link epidemiological and basic biological research at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and the New York Academy of Medicine's Center of Urban Epidemiologic Studies with the Boriken Neighborhood Health Center, with the East Harlem Community Health Committee and with an extensive network of community-based organizations in East Harlem.
Progress Summary:Children in America’s cities are at risk of exposure to multiple known and potential developmental toxicants-- pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and lead. The goal of the Mount Sinai Center for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention will be to identify, elucidate and prevent developmental deficits that result from exposures to environmental toxicants in the inner city.
Project 1, Barbara Brenner PI, a community-based prevention program, is being undertaken in East Harlem, New York City, in partnership with Boriken Health Center. At Boriken, we are recruiting expectant mothers and implementing an intervention to reduce exposures to pesticides and other developmental toxicants in their homes. Two non-intervention comparison groups consist of expectant mothers in similar housing enrolled in Project 2 and at Settlement Health, a nearby community health center. Environmental assessments are being conducted longitudinally over three years by measuring pesticide ambient levels and roach infestation. To date, 236 expectant mothers have joined the study. Preliminary data show a significant reduction in infestation which we attribute to the detailed individually tailored integrated pest management program that has been developed for each intervention home.
Project 2, Trudy Berkowitz PI, is a prospective epidemiologic study of an ethnically diverse birth cohort of infants born at Mount Sinai. Over 470 mothers have been recruited so far, with 432 births. The ultimate aim is to assess whether in utero exposures to pesticides and other toxicants are associated with developmental delays in children in New York City. Exposures to pesticides are common in this group of mothers. An apparent gene-environment effect has been found for pesticides and infant birth size measures.
Project 3, Jim Wetmur PI, is studying seven genetic polymorphisms in the enzymes that activate and detoxify organophosphates and other pesticides in the population of mothers and infants enrolled in Project 2. Genotypes and phenotypes have been assessed in 656 samples, including maternal and cord bloods. Genotype-phenotype associations of PON1 vary by allele, are independent of race/ethnicity, and are stronger for infants than mothers. Results suggest that infants may be more susceptible to toxic effects of PON1 substrates. High throughput technology has been developed and used in this project.
Project 4, Ezra Susser PI, Tom Matte Co-PI, is a retrospective study of African-American men enrolled in the Collaborative Perinatal Project. A manuscript has been submitted that describes associations between maternal PCB level and neurodevelopmental at age 4, 7, and 17 years. Other analyses are underway. Adult followup has begun to reassess neurologic function.
Project 5, supports Dr. Andrea Gore as a newly recruited Center scientist. She is examining GnRH mechanisms that may control effects of environmental toxicants on neuroendocrine development using GT1-7 neuronal cell lines and a rat model. Consistent results have been found in both systems, such that chemicals may stimulate (Aroclor 1221, chlorpyrifos methoxychlor) or inhibit (Aroclor 1254) GnRH expression in GT1-7 cells. Analogous effects have been found in the rat model for PCBs, while with chlorpyrifos exposure, rats pups exhibit delayed growth.
The Center contains Facilities Cores in Exposure Assessment and Biostatistics/Data Management as well as an Administration Core.
Journal Articles: 7 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 13 publications | 8 publications in selected types | All 7 journal articles |
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Berkowitz GS, Wolff MS, Matte T, Susser E, Landrigan PJ. The rationale for a national prospective cohort study of environmental exposure and childhood development. Environmental Research 2001;85(2):59-68. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C004 (2002) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2006) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C002 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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Berkowitz GS, Obel J, Deych E, Lapinski R, Godbold J, Liu Z, Landrigan PJ, Wolff MS. Exposure to indoor pesticides during pregnancy in a multiethnic, urban cohort. Environmental Health Perspectives 2003;111(1):79-84. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C004 (2002) R831711 (2004) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2006) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C002 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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Chen J, Germer S, Higuchi R, Berkowitz G, Godbold J, Wetmur JG. Kinetic polymerase chain reaction on pooled DNA: a high-throughput, high-efficiency alternative in genetic epidemiological studies. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 2002;11(1):131-136. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C001 (2002) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2006) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C002 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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Gore AC. Environmental toxicant effects on neuroendocrine function. Endocrine 2001;14(2):235-246. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C002 (2002) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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Gore AC, Wu TJ, Oung T, Lee JB, Woller MJ. A novel mechanism for endocrine-disrupting effects of polychlorinated biphenyls: direct effects on gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurones. Journal of Neuroendocrinology 2002;14(10):814-823. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C002 (2002) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2006) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C002 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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Gore AC. Organochlorine pesticides directly regulate gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) gene expression and biosynthesis in the GT1-7 hypothalamic cell line. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 2002;192(1-2):157-170. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C002 (2002) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2006) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C002 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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Landrigan PJ, Claudio L, Markowitz SB, Berkowitz GS, Brenner BL, Romero H, Wetmur JG, Matte TD, Gore AC, Godbold JH, Wolff MS. Pesticides and inner-city children: exposures, risks, and prevention. Environmental Health Perspectives 1999;107(Suppl 3):431-437. |
R827039 (2002) R827039C002 (2002) R827039C003 (2000) R831711 (2005) R831711 (2006) R831711 (2007) R831711C001 (2004) R831711C001 (2006) R831711C002 (2006) R831711C003 (2006) |
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, Toxics, Scientific Discipline, Health, RFA, Susceptibility/Sensitive Population/Genetic Susceptibility, Risk Assessments, genetic susceptability, Epidemiology, Children's Health, pesticides, environmentally caused disease, environmental hazard exposures, neurodevelopmental toxicity, respiratory problems, urban air, children's environmental health, lead, assessment of exposure, childhood respiratory disease, human health risk, PCBs, susceptibility, developmental neurotoxicity, childhood lead exposure, pesticide exposure, environmental health, lead exposure, developmental lead exposure, airway disease, children, environmental risks, age dependent response, growth & development, children's vulnerablity, health risks, human exposure, Human Health Risk Assessment
Progress and Final Reports:
2000 Progress Report
Original Abstract
Subprojects under this Center:
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R827039C001 Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem
R827039C002 Exposure to Indoor Pesticides and PCBs and their Effects on Growth and Neurodevelopment in Urban Children
R827039C003 Genetics of Chlorpyrifos Risk in Minority Populations
R827039C004 Prenatal PCB Exposure and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Adolescence and Adulthood
R827039C005 Neuroendocrine Mechanisms of Environmental Toxicants: PCBs and Pesticides