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Author Archive for Adrian Hoppel

Greenfest 2014: What questions should our CEET researchers be asking about environmental health?

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Thursday, February 12th, 2015 
· No Comments

One of the key missions of the Community Outreach and Engagement Core is to create multidirectional communication between community members and CEET researchers to integrate community concerns into research questions. To evaluate how well we are accomplishing our mission we attended Greenfest 2014 – Philadelphia’s largest environmental festival. The Clean Air Council, an active partner and member of our Stakeholder Advisory Board, hosts Greenfest. We asked the public ‘what questions should our CEET researchers be asking about environmental health?’ The public provided a variety of topics, questions, and concerns!

Following the festival, we classified the community’s interests and questions into themes. We cross-referenced the themes with the CEET research topics by affinity group. Themes higher on the list were brought up more often by community members. If multiple themes appeared the same number of times then the themes were listed alphabetically.

Greenfest Evaluation - Affinity Groups

Through our analysis we have shown that our researchers are exploring a wide variety of environmental health issues and the majority of themes that were identified by the community at Greenfest 2014. We also found areas that the community is concerned about, but CEET is currently not exploring. These themes included: recycling, green space, plastic degradation, animal waste runoff, energy consumption, and nuclear waste (highlighted in yellow). This type of analysis informs CEET researchers about interests that the community has in environmental health that CEET should consider in the future.

We will continue to collect community interests and questions regarding environmental health at community events and evaluate our multidirectional communication between our researchers and the public. To find out more about the research being done by CEET researchers, see our website.

Greenfest 2014

Greenfest 2014_3

Greenfest 2014_2

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Categories : CEET Blog, COEC Blog
Tags : #IamEH, CEET, COEC, Community, evaluation, Greenfest

Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn study seeks to track Ambler’s asbestos legacy

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Monday, October 20th, 2014 
· No Comments

Sandy Bauers highlights the exposure to asbestos in Ambler.

For the full article, click here.

For more information on The University of Pennsylvania’s Superfund research team, updates on the research and other community resources visit: www.med.upenn.edu/asbestos/

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Categories : News

WHYY: Researchers call for cumulative approach to measuring Pa. pollution

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Tuesday, October 7th, 2014 
· No Comments

Jessica McDonald from WHYY released an article highlighting COEC Director Dr. Marilyn Howarth in Researchers call for cumulative approach to measuring Pa. pollution

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Categories : News

How can GAMP & UPenn partner with local neighborhoods to understand Philly’s Air Monitoring Plan?

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Monday, September 8th, 2014 
· No Comments

photo (6)

Project:

Our COEC has been working with Philadelphia Air Management Services (AMS) as they expand their monitoring network for air quality (AQ) in South Philadelphia.

How did we get involved?

Our CEET summer research program entitled Short-Term Educational Experiences for Research (STEER) for undergraduates arranged to incorporate this air monitoring initiative into the curriculum of a local South Philadelphia school. Adriana Garcia, a rising senior in the Earth and Environmental Science Department, worked with two teachers at Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP) preparatory school at 2136 W. Ritner Street to develop a teaching module on air quality for students in the Environmental Science classes. The module has now been taught for two semesters, and the participating faculty has been delighted with the results of the project.

How did the project expand?

Over the course of 18 months, AMS put in place the expanded AQ network located several blocks from GAMP, which was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The monitoring station is now fully operational and focuses on the collection of data on priority air toxics as mandated by the 1972 Clean Air Act (CAA) and the subsequent 1990 amendments. During the summer of 2013 with encouragement of AMS, Adriana worked with Jason Henderson from the GAMP faculty and a graduate student from Duke University to expand the teaching module and to draft a proposal to expand the communication of this important AQ data to the surrounding neighborhoods.

How did this idea become a reality?

A STEER student from Brown University, Livia Frasso Jaramillo, and Upenn MPH student, Jessica Meeker, worked with Mr. Henderson and Mr. Ruddick, both from the GAMP faculty to finalize the project this summer and submit it to the City(AMS). AMS agreed to fully fund the proposal, which will initially focus on data interpretation and communication of AQ information to the GAMP school community and its surrounding neighborhoods.

What are the expected outcomes?

AMS financial support will provide increased technology for the GAMP school and the development of two courses that will be taught at GAMP on air quality and community outreach to the GAMP family. By the conclusion of the 2014-15 academic year, we anticipate that GAMP’s leadership role will result in a better-informed student body and community on the importance of AQ and the potential risks that ambient air toxics may present to an unsuspecting South Philadelphia population. The second year of the project will provide additional outreach to the Point Breeze community in another section of South Philly that is experiencing asthma rates well above national and regional levels.

This successful collaboration brought together many willing partners to address an important environmental issue that warrants more investigation. The initiative designed a novel communication approach to better inform an urban population in South Philadelphia addressing their questions and concerns with credible local data on the quality of the air they breathe.

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Categories : CEET Blog, COEC Blog
Tags : #IamEH, Air Management, AMS, CEET, COEC, GAMP, Philadelphia, STEER

NIEHS’s Monthly Newsletter Environmental Factor Highlights TREES Student

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014 
· No Comments

NIEHS’s monthly newsletter Environmental Factor has highlighted May Wang’s recent award from the EPA. May Wang is a 2013 TREES student here at the University of Pennsylvania.

For the full article, click here.

Interested in the TREES program? Click here for more information.

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Categories : News
Tags : BPA, CEET, EPA, TREES

Environmental Health and Environmental Justice in Pennsylvania: Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014 
· No Comments
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Categories : Uncategorized

TREES Student Wins National Award for Environmental Research

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Friday, August 29th, 2014 
· No Comments

May Wang, a 2013 TREES student wins a national award for environmental research. Click here for the full article from Philly.com

Bucks student wins national award for environmental research

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Categories : News
Tags : CEET, environmental research, EPA, TREES

State Impact NPR: Pa. health department reaches out to doctors amid controversy over drilling complaints: CEET Director, Dr. Trevor Penning, and Deputy Director, Dr. Reynold Panettieri both mentioned.

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Monday, August 4th, 2014 
· No Comments

Pa. health department reaches out to doctors amid controversy over drilling complaints

CEET Director, Dr. Trevor Penning, and Deputy Director, Dr. Reynold Panettieri are both mentioned in this article.

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Categories : News

STEER Student Oscar Serpell’s Work with GIS and the Lancaster Community

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Friday, July 25th, 2014 
· 1 Comment

STEER

The Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) of the University of Pennsylvania has received an NIEHS award for summer internships for selected undergraduate students (the Short Term Educational Experiences for Research (STEER). The program includes ten weeks of summer activities including lectures and field trips that expose students to the field of environmental health science through mentorship, coursework, and field experience. Click here for more information on STEER.

photo-3

Meet 2014 STEER Student Oscar Serpell

I am a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Environmental Management and Sustainability. I also have a minor in Biological Anthropology,
exploring how humans have historically interacted with our environment on a biological level. This combination of studies has given me an appreciation of how significant our modern times are in the narrative of our species. After graduation, I will be going on to complete a Master of Environmental Studies degree with a concentration in Resource Management. Environmental Toxicology, and lead poisoning specifically, is of interest to me because it is a striking example of how irresponsible environmental decision-making can lead to profound human health effects and substantial loss of resources (in this case, the high cost of remediation).

What is your summer research project?

For my research this summer with the STEER Internship Program, I am assisting Mr. Rich Pepino and Dr. Marilyn Howarth with the determination of the potential correlation between high lead levels in the soil and elevated blood lead levels (EBLL’s) in young children. Over the years Professor Pepino has collected samples in Lancaster City and identified hot spots of high lead levels in the soil. Using ‘Geographic Information Systems’ (GIS), I am mapping the several dozen non-random soil samples taken by Professor Pepino, and over-laying data that shows the areas of the city that have the greatest number of children with EBLL’s, provided to us by Dr. Michael Horst, an epidemiologist at Lancaster General Hospital.

Childhood lead exposure, even in very small doses, can lead to serious behavioral and cognitive impairments that can affect an individual for the rest of their lives. The most common lead exposures for children are through lead contaminated paint chippings, dust, toys, and water. Recent research also clearly indicates that soil may also represent a significant risk to children in the 0-6 year age bracket. Click here for more information on lead and CEET’s activities in Lancaster.

What are the implications of your research?

If a correlation between location and high lead levels does exist, it would suggest that there might be historic industrial practices or activities in Lancaster’s past other than lead paint that are leading to soil lead levels of significant concern to public health. Any further evidence for or against this hypothesis will require an extensive and systematic lead surveillance project like the one we hope to fund with this grant. If a concentration was found, and an appropriate source was identified, this project would provide the field of Environmental Toxicology with further evidence that sources other than paint need to be considered when attempting to help communities remediate its lead hazards.

What new skills have you gained through this experience?

I started this internship with no prior experience with GIS. I have learned so much just by working with this data and now feel confident in constructing basic maps with the software. I have also learned from Rich how to track down the information you need, and the people you need to contact. As he puts it, you need to find all the pieces before you start building the puzzle.

We want to hear from you!

Please share with us any questions you have regarding asbestos or any other environmental health issues by using the comment field, contact us, Twitter or Facebook!

Have a suggestion for a topic to be covered in our blog? Let us know! We would love to cover a topic that you are interested in learning more about!

Follow #IamEH for all of our posts and learn about what environmental health questions are being asked all over the country!

1 Comment
Categories : CEET Blog, COEC Blog
Tags : #IamEH, COEC, Community, contamination, Environmental Toxicology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Lancaster, Lead poisoning, soil, STEER

Environmental health research recommendations from the Inter-Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Working Group on Unconventional Natural Gas Drilling Operations published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Posted by Adrian Hoppel 
· Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014 
· No Comments

Environmental health research recommendations from the Inter-Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Working Group on Unconventional Natural Gas Drilling Operations published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

CEET Director Dr. Trevor Penning and COEC Director Dr. Marilyn Howarth were both lead authors on this collaborative paper.

Click here for the full article.

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Categories : News
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