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CBRA Bulletin - April (II) 2009
This new Community-Based Risk Assessment (CBRA) Listserv is sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and managed through the EPA's National Center of Environmental Research (NCER). Please feel free to forward the listserv messages to interested colleagues or ask them to join!
News and Opportunities | Featured Resource | Featured Science Articles
- EPA’s New Webpages on CBRA
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) has launched a new science topic Webpage on Community Based Risk Assessment (CBRA). The CBRA Webpage features past and ongoing related research and information resources and presents information about cumulative risk assessment. Explore the CBRA Webpage at: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/cbra.EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) has launched a new Webpage explaining new approaches and tools to conduct community-based cumulative risk assessments. This Webpage reviews relevant EPA tools in a number of summary tables and describes the future Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST). Explore this Website at: http://www.epa.gov/heasd/risk/projects/c3a_risk_assessment_tools.htm..
- National Environmental Public Health Conference: Call for Abstracts
Abstracts are currently being accepted for the 2009 National Environmental Public Health Conference, “Healthy People in a Healthy Environment.” The Conference is being organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), in conjunction with the National Environmental Health Association. The conference will be held October 26-28 in Atlanta, Georgia. The deadline to submit an abstract is May 8. Guidelines on submission can be found at: www.team-psa.com/2009nephc.
. - NIH Summer Institute on Community-Based Participatory Research
The 2009 National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Summer Institute on Community-Based Participatory Research Targeting the Medically Underserved” will be held August 2-7 in New Orleans, LA. This course will address essential conceptual, methodological, and practical issues inherent in planning and conducting research on health promotion, disease prevention, and health disparities that is conducted in partnership between communities and researchers and targets medically underserved areas and medically underserved populations. The Institute is intended for investigators who wish to develop NIH grant applications for research targeting the medically underserved. Both Investigators and Community Partners are encouraged to participate. Applications for the Institute are due May 15. Details are available at: http://conferences.thehillgroup.com/si2009/. - 2009 CSTE Annual Conference (June 7-11)
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) will hold their 2009 Annual Conference June 7-12 in Buffalo, New York. CSTE is a professional association of public health epidemiologists working in states, local health agencies, and territories. CSTE works to establish more effective relationships among state and other health agencies. For more information about the Annual Meeting, see: http://www.cste.org/dnn/AnnualConference/2009AnnualConference/tabid/244/Default.aspx. - RWJ Funding Opportunity to Improve Health of Vulnerable Subpopulations
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Local Funding Partnerships (LFP) program is seeking proposals for 2009-2010. The LFP program forges relationships between RWJF and local grant makers to fund promising, original projects that are collaborative and community-based and that can significantly improve the health of vulnerable people in their communities. Proposals are due July 7. Conference calls to advise applicants will be held in May. For more information, visit: http://www.rwjf.org/applications/solicited/cfp.jsp?ID=20605 - Subscribe to EPA email Announcements
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a free email subscription service that allows users to receive notifications when new information is available. You can sign up to receive different announcements, including news releases and other alerts, or updates from different EPA Programs. Go to www.epa.gov and check out the right-hand menu “Subscribe to EPA Email Updates” under the Interact portlet. - Subscribe to CDC email Announcements
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a free email subscription service that allows users to receive notifications when new information is available. You can receive updated information on topics of interest, such as environmental health, health statistics, and chronic diseases. You can also set your settings to receive daily, weekly, or monthly updates. See: http://www.cdc.gov/emailupdates/index.html.
NACCHO Launches Community Health Status Indicators Website The National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) and its partners announce the launch of the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) Website. The site includes county-level data from
1994-2006 in viewable online or in downloadable reports. Each report includes Healthy People 2010 targets, national rates and peer counties (i.e. similar in population, age, and poverty) for comparison purposes.
To access the site, visit: www.communityhealth.hhs.gov/HomePage.aspx.
For guidance on how to use the CHSI Reports, visit NACCHO’s CHSI
Webpage: www.naccho.org/topics/infrastructure/CHSI .
- The EPA’s Human Exposure Research Program for Assessing Cumulative Risk in Communities
Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology (Epublication ahead of print) by Valerie Zartarian and Brad Schultz
Abstract:
Communities are faced with challenges in identifying and prioritizing environmental issues, taking actions to reduce their exposures, and determining their effectiveness for reducing human health risks. Additional challenges include determining what scientific tools are available and most relevant, and understanding how to use those tools; given these barriers, community groups tend to rely more on risk perception than science. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and collaborators are developing and applying tools (models, data, methods) for enhancing cumulative risk assessments. The NERL's "Cumulative Communities Research Program" focuses on key science questions: (1) How to systematically identify and prioritize key chemical stressors within a given community?; (2) How to develop estimates of exposure to multiple stressors for individuals in epidemiologic studies?; and (3) What tools can be used to assess community-level distributions of exposures for the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of risk reduction strategies? This paper provides community partners and scientific researchers with an understanding of the NERL research program and other efforts to address cumulative community risks; and key research needs and opportunities. Some initial findings include the following: (1) Many useful tools exist for components of risk assessment, but need to be developed collaboratively with end users and made more comprehensive and user-friendly for practical application; (2) Tools for quantifying cumulative risks and impact of community risk reduction activities are also needed; (3) More data are needed to assess community- and individual-level exposures, and to link exposure-related information with health effects; and (4) Additional research is needed to incorporate risk-modifying factors ("non-chemical stressors") into cumulative risk assessments. The products of this research program will advance the science for cumulative risk assessments and empower communities with information so that they can make informed, cost-effective decisions to improve public health.
- Risk Assessment on Mixture Toxicity of Arsenic, Zinc and Copper Intake from Consumption of Milkfish, Chanos Chanos (Forsskal), Cultured Using Contaminated Groundwater in Southwest Taiwan
Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (Epublication Ahead of Print) by MC Lin
Abstract:
Studies on bioaccumulation of arsenic, zinc, and copper in freshwater-cultured milkfish were carried out to assess the risks on human health. The arsenic, zinc, and copper levels in milkfish showed significant positive correlations to the arsenic, zinc, and copper concentrations in pond water. The hazard index of arsenic, zinc, and copper mixture for intake of milkfish (1.75 +/- 0.65) demonstrated that intake of in this way contaminated milkfish will result in non-carcinogenic risk. The target cancer risk of arsenic for intake of the milkfish (2.74 x 10(-4) +/- 1.18 x 10(-4)) indicated that the inhabitants were exposed to arsenic pollution with carcinogenic risk.
- Cumulative Exposure to Lead in Relation to Cognitive Function in Older Women
Environmental Health Perspectives (Volume 117, No 4: 574-580) by Jennifer Weuve, Susan A. Korrick, Marc A. Weisskopf, Louise M. Ryan, Joel Schwartz, Huiling Nei, Francine Grodstein, and Howard Hu
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:Recent data indicate that chronic low-level exposure to lead is associated with accelerated declines in cognition in older age, but this has not been examined in women.
OBJECTIVE: We examined biomarkers of lead exposure in relation to performance on a battery of cognitive tests among older women.
METHODS: Patella and tibia bone lead—measures of cumulative exposure over many years—and blood lead, a measure of recent exposure, were assessed in 587 women 47–74 years of age. We assessed their cognitive function 5 years later using validated telephone interviews.
RESULTS: Mean ± SD lead levels in tibia, patella, and blood were 10.5 ± 9.7 µg/g bone, 12.6 ± 11.6 µg/g bone, and 2.9 ± 1.9 µg/dL, respectively, consistent with community-level exposures. In multivariable-adjusted analyses of all cognitive tests combined, levels of all three lead biomarkers were associated with worse cognitive performance. The association between bone lead and letter fluency score differed dramatically from the other bone lead-cognitive score associations, and exclusion of this particular score from the combined analyses strengthened the associations between bone lead and cognitive performance. Results were statistically significant only for tibia lead: one SD increase in tibia lead corresponded to a 0.051-unit lower standardized summary cognitive score (95% confidence interval: –0.099 to –0.003 ; p = 0.04) , similar to the difference in cognitive scores we observed between women who were 3 years apart in age.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that cumulative exposure to lead, even at low levels experienced in community settings, may have adverse consequences for women’s cognition in older age.
- An Integrated Probabilistic Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment of Common Mechanism Chemicals in Food: An Example with Organophosphate Pesticides
Regulatory Toxicology Pharmacology (Epublication ahead of print) by Bosgra S, van der Voet H, Boon PE, and Slob W
Abstract:
This paper presents a framework for integrated probabilistic risk assessment of chemicals in the diet which accounts for the possibility of cumulative exposure to chemicals with a common mechanism of action. Variability between individuals in the population with respect to food consumption, concentrations of chemicals in the consumed foods, food processing habits and sensitivity towards the chemicals is addressed by Monte Carlo simulations. A large number of individuals are simulated, for which the individual exposure (iEXP), the individual critical effect dose (iCED) and the ratio between these values (the individual margin of exposure, iMoE) are calculated by drawing random values for all variable parameters from databases or specified distributions. This results in a population distribution of the iMoE, and the fraction of this distribution below 1 indicates the fraction of the population that may be at risk. Uncertainty in the assessment is treated as a separate dimension by repeating the Monte Carlo simulations many times, each time drawing random values for all uncertain parameters. In this framework, the cumulative exposure to common mechanism chemicals is addressed by incorporation of the relative potency factor (RPF) approach. The framework is demonstrated by the cumulative risk assessment of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs). By going through this example, the various choices and assumptions underlying the cumulative risk assessment are made explicit. The problems faced and the solutions chosen may be more generic than the present example with OPs. This demonstration may help to familiarize risk assessors and risk managers with the somewhat more complex output of probabilistic risk assessment.
- Childhood Poverty, Chronic Stress, and Adult Working Memory
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) (Volume Y, No X: Pages) by Gary W. Evans and Michelle A. Schamberg
Abstract:
The income–achievement gap is a formidable societal problem, but little is known about either neurocognitive or biological mechanisms that might account for income-related deficits in academic achievement. We show that childhood poverty is inversely related to working memory in young adults. Furthermore, this prospective relationship is mediated by elevated chronic stress during childhood. Chronic stress is measured by allostatic load, a biological marker of cumulative wear and tear on the body that is caused by the mobilization of multiple physiological systems in response to chronic environmental demands.
- Establishing an Implementation Network: Lessons Learned from Community-Based Participatory Research
Implementation Science (Volume 4, No 17) by Laurie A. Lindamer, Barry Lebowitz, Richard L. Hough, Piedad Garcia, Alfredo Aguirre, Maureen C Halpain, Colin Depp, and Dilip V Jeste
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:Implementation of evidence-based mental health assessment and intervention in community public health practice is a high priority for multiple stakeholders. Academic-community partnerships can assist in the implementation of efficacious treatments in community settings; yet, little is known about the processes by which these collaborations are developed. In this paper, we discuss our application of community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to implementation, and we present six lessons we have learned from the establishment of an academic-community partnership.
METHODS: With older adults with psychosis as a focus, we have developed a partnership between a university research center and a public mental health service system based on CBPR. The long-term goal of the partnership is to collaboratively establish an evidence-based implementation network that is sustainable within the public mental healthcare system.
RESULTS: In building a sustainable partnership, we found that the following lessons were instrumental: changing attitudes; sharing staff; expecting obstacles and formalizing solutions; monitoring and evaluating; adapting and adjusting; and taking advantage of emerging opportunities. Some of these lessons were previously known principles that were modified as the result of the CBPR process, while some lessons derived directly from the interactive process of forming the partnership.
CONCLUSION: The process of forming of academic-public partnerships is challenging and time consuming, yet crucial for the development and implementation of state-of-the-art approaches to assessment and interventions to improve the functioning and quality of life for persons with serious mental illnesses. These partnerships provide necessary organizational support to facilitate the implementation of clinical research findings in community practice benefiting consumers, researchers, and providers.
Article available for free via PubMed Central at: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=19335915