Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health

Columbia University School of Public Health

Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health
Frederica Perera, DrPH.
fpp1@columbia.edu
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/sph/ccceh/index.html

Project Description

The overall theme of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) is the identification and prevention of risks of neurodevelopmental impairment and childhood asthma from prenatal and postnatal exposure to urban pollutants. Since it was established in 1998, the Center has forged a successful partnership with West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), and nine other community organizations to identify and prevent environmental causes of childhood disease in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. The Center has enrolled and retained a unique cohort of mothers and children of color who belong to one of the most at-risk urban populations in this country with respect to environmental exposures, social adversity, and childhood health problems. Using molecular epidemiologic approaches, Center investigators have developed a rich body of knowledge about this vulnerable and disadvantaged urban population. They have documented substantial prenatal exposure to indoor and outdoor urban pollutants, including the combustion byproduct polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), pesticides, and pest allergens. The research has demonstrated significant associations between prenatal exposures to those pollutants and adverse birth outcomes and/or neurodevelopmental, immunological, and respiratory health outcomes in children studied through age two. Building on its achievements of the past five years, the Center has launched several important new initiatives. These include follow-up of the mother and child cohort through ages five to seven, as the children enter school, with links to school performance data at age eight. Additional exposure, biomarker, and outcome assessments will allow testing of new etiologic hypotheses in the community based participatory research (CBPR) projects on asthma and growth and development. A new laboratory-based mechanistic research project elucidates possible mechanisms of in utero sensitization by co-exposure to PAH/diesel exhaust particles and allergens, directly complementing the CBPR asthma project. A CBPR Intervention project on integrated pest management and health-related housing improvements is being conducted in partnership with the New York City Departments of Health and Mental Health and the New York City Housing Authority. A new Community Outreach, Translation, and Application Core (COTAC) ensures that the Center's findings have local and national public health impact. COTAC initiatives will include: education of medical students, medical residents, and pediatricians about children's environmental health; a new community campaign to improve air and housing quality in New York City, co-led by WE ACT; and risk assessment, cost, and risk prevention analyses on the Center's findings regarding the health effects of environmental exposures and the cost effectiveness of IPM. In summary, the Center is a valued resource to the community, scientific researchers, and policymakers.

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Project Highlights

Several of the Center’s findings have had strong impact on environmental health policy in low-income neighborhoods of New York City.  Recent key findings regarding the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on young children, confirmed the serious health implications of these pollutants.  High prenatal exposure to PAHs were found to increase the risk of precursor symptoms to asthma (Miller et al, Chest 2004).  High prenatal exposure to PAHs were also found to be associated with at 2.9 times greater odds of cognitive developmental delay at age 3 (Perera et al, EHP, 2006).  Chromosomal aberrations (biomarkers of potential cancer risk) in newborns were found to be associated with prenatal exposure to PAHs (Bocskay et al, CEBP 2005).  Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has adverse health outcomes in children, contributing to developmental delays requiring early intervention services that cost New York City an estimated $99 million annually for all New York City births and over $50 million for Medicaid births (Miller et al, EHP, 2006).  Through the policy partnership between CCCEH and WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the Center’s research results have had a strong impact on environmental policy in low-income minority neighborhoods of New York City.  Specifically, Center investigators in conjunction with community environmental justice and public interest groups  together convinced New York City’s bus fleet to convert their fuel sources to clean diesel and also install permanent EPA air monitors in Harlem (Vasquez et al, Journal of Urban Health, 2006). 

Recent pesticide findings have been critical in the environmental justice movement.  Prenatal exposure to two household pesticides, chlorpyrifos and diazinon, which transfer readily to the fetus, were found to reduce birth weight by an average of 6.6 ounces (Whyatt, et al, EHP 2004).  Furthermore, high prenatal exposure to pesticide chlorpyrifos was found to be associated with psychomotor and cognitive delay and attentional disorders at age 3 (Rauh et al, Pediatrics in press).  CCCEH investigators' testimonies on smaller birth size associated with prenatal pesticide exposure, helped pass two landmark pesticide bills in New York City to reduce human exposure to pesticides.

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