University of Southern California

Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center

Frank Gilliland, Ph.D.
gillilan@usc.edu
http://hydra.usc.edu/scehsc/default.asp

Project Description

The main purposes of the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center are to: 1) study the effects of environmental exposures on humans; 2) determine host factors (genetic and other) influencing response to these exposures; and 3) inform the public. To accomplish these goals the investigators bring together an interdisciplinary team of investigators from two major Southern California universities: the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The research of the Center features several interdisciplinary cornerstones: detailed exposure assessment, including toxicokinetics and biomarkers; cutting edge study design, including the most powerful statistical and epidemiologic approaches; and the basic sciences, including physiology, molecular biology, genetics, chemistry and engineering. The foci of the Center cover a wide range of problems and address environmental exposures of public health importance including indoor and outdoor air pollution, pesticides, aflatoxins, radiation and passive smoking. The four Research Cores consist of: the Respiratory Effects Research Core (Director: Peters); the Exposure Assessment Research Core (Director: Froines); the Cancer Research Core (Director: Ross); and the Study Design and Statistical Methodology Research Core (Director: Thomas). The three Facility Cores consist of: the Molecular Biology, Sample Processing and Storage Facility Core (Director: Dubeau); the Exposure Assessment and GIS Facility Core (Director: Hinds); and the Biostatistics Facility Core (Director: Gauderman). The Center also features an integrative Core for Community Outreach and Education (COEP; Director: Hricko). The Center is structured to promote interdisciplinary research and linkage between the research and the COEP. Processes creating these interactions include research initiatives, seminar series, pilot projects, research focus groups, workshops and retreats. The previous nine years of support for this Center have resulted in the recruitment of new investigators, more investigators working on environmental health problems, increasing funding support, more interaction between researchers from different disciplines and a greater production of research findings relevant to answering critical public health questions. The Center also has developed research initiatives for the next five years that focus the interdisciplinary team of investigators on important environmental issues.

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Program Highlights

Ports, Pollution, and Public Health

The Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) at the University of Southern California has played a particularly instrumental role in keeping attention focused on scientific research findings documenting the health impacts from air pollution resulting from Port-related traffic and in trying to keep uppermost in decision-makers' minds the need to protect public health and prevent disease. In 2001, the Center held a Town Meeting and learned from community residents from the Harbor area that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were rapidly expanding due to increasing international trade and that poorly regulated air emissions from trucks, trains, and ships were becoming a larger and larger contributor to the Los Angeles Air Basin's air pollution. Using the "local knowledge" from community residents, the COEC turned its attention to this emerging issue, launching efforts to educate a broad and diverse community about the health impacts of air pollution and the role of international trade as a major contributor. In 2005, the COEC sponsored a Town Meeting specifically on health impacts related to ports and goods movement, in order to engage an even wider array of stakeholders in this emerging public health issue.

During 2005 and 2006, COEC members and staff presented the Center's (and other scientists') research findings on the health effects of air pollution at dozens of public meetings, conferences, task force meetings, harbor commission hearings, journalist training programs, and government proceedings. They participated on task forces and committees and testified at hearings. The COEC also presented the scientific evidence to community organizations in language they could understand and utilize. When the State of California organized a task force to develop a framework for the State's "Goods Movement Action Plan" (focused primarily on the need for constructing more infrastructure to handle the increase in international trade), the COEC was appointed as the only organization representing the "public health concerns."

In 2006, this issue became widely recognized as a statewide priority and significant policy issue. In 2006, Environment Now awarded the top achievement on air quality to Ports and Goods Movement, stating: "Ports and goods movement has become a statewide focus for improving air quality and public health." Environment Now credited the EHS Center at USC, as one of five organizations making the most significant accomplishments on this topic. The perception of potential health impacts from ports and goods movement has changed remarkably since 2001. Evidence of this change can be seen through several policy examples. Where "public health" was not previously mentioned in the Goods Movement Action Plan, it is now prominent.

In late 2007, the COEC will sponsor a "North American Conference on Healthy Solutions for Communities Impacted by Trade, Ports and Goods Movement." Read more at: http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2004/112-15/niehsnews.html (http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2004/112-15/niehsnews.html)

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