Dr. Marilyn Howarth, director of the Community Outreach and Engagement Core for Penn’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, has been working local communities to determine their exposomes and help them figure out what to do about it.
Sandy Bauers/ The Philadelphia Inquirer / February 3, 2017
Read full article from the Philadelphia Inquirer
On Wednesday, July 27th, the CEET supported the Fels Policy Research Initiative by providing science expertise and a research perspective for their interactive panel discussion on Lead and environmental policy. The panelists contributing to this discussion were our COEC Director Dr. Marilyn Howarth, environmental journalist for The Guardian Oliver Milman, and Michigan Congressman Dan Kildee. The discussion ranged from the policy decisions made in Flint, Michigan that preceded and triggered the lead poisoning of thousands of children and adults living in Flint through exposure to lead in drinking water, the influence of environmental injustice on the government’s response to the Flint Water Crisis, to strategies for investment in infrastructure to replace lead service lines across the United States. Panelists agreed that policies must be put in place to ensure that all citizens know if they have lead service lines. Some individuals and some municipalities would use this information to identify local strategies to prevent lead exposure like using filters on drinking water lines and planning for the systematic replacement of lead service lines. Oliver Milman described investigative reporting that identified that many US cities used water testing methods that were not in compliance with EPA standards and would tend to lower the lead levels found. Congressman Kildee has introduced legislation that would decrease the action level for lead in water to 5 ppb because he noted that the current action level for lead in water, 15ppb, is not identifying problems in water systems when they exist. This hampers government agencies from taking any action. Dr. Howarth noted that the action level is not a health based standard. In other words, it has not been proven to protect public health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that even lead levels in water of 20ppb can raise a small child’s blood lead level into the dangerous range over 5 mcg/dl. Dr. Howarth reaffirmed that there is no safe level of lead exposure for children and that preventative measures should be taken to limit lead exposure to children from water, lead based paint, lead in toys, and imported medications and candy. The panel agreed that an effective strategy for tackling lead exposure should be multi-faceted and that it was important for public health to design strategies that are universally applicable. For more information on lead and how you can protect yourself and children from lead exposure, please download our lead brochure.
The CEET announced the publication of its collaborative research study on the link between hydraulic fracturing and hospitalization rates in the Marcellus Shale region, in PLOS ONE on Wednesday July 15th. Over the past ten years in the United States, hydraulic fracturing has experienced a meteoric increase. Due to substantial increases in well drilling the potential for air and water pollution posing a health threat has been a concern for nearby residents. To address this issue, researchers from two Environmental Health Science Core Centers of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences — the CEET at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and the Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, examined the link between drilling well density and healthcare use by zip code from 2007 to 2011 in three northeastern Pennsylvania counties. They found that hospitalization rates for cardiology and neurologic conditions increased in counties where hydraulic fracturing was occurring. To read this paper on the PLOS ONE webpage, please visit the link below:
Unconventional Gas and Oil Drilling is Associated with Increased Hospital Utilization Rates
The following are links to articles profiling this recent publication:
The Morning Call_Study shows more hospital stays in three fracking counties
Energy Wire_Limited study ties fracking to hospitalizations
Fortune_Fracking is associated with higher rates of hospitalization, study says
Pittsburgh Power Source_Study finds those living near shale wells more likely to be hospitalized
State Impact_Study shows increased hospitalizations in Pennsylvania shale gas region
HealthDay_Hospitalization rates jump near ‘fracking’ sites
Newsweek_Living near fracking wells linked to increased hospitalization rates
Summit County Citizen’s Voice_Study tracks spike in fracking zone health problems
CBS Philly_New study finds link between fracking and poor health in PA
Philadelphia Inquirer_Pa. studies link fracking with health problems
Fracking in Pennsylvania linked with increased hospitalizations
PHILADELPHIA – The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has renewed its funding to the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET), at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, for the next five years. This grant will continue CEET’s work serving the environmental health needs of southeastern Pennsylvania, building on ten years of excellence in environmental health research at Penn. The new grant totals over $8.0 million. CEET was established in 2004 with a four-year, $4.1 million grant from NIEHS to study the effects of environmental pollutants on human health.
CEET is one of only 20 designated Environmental Health Science Core Centers in the United States and the first in Pennsylvania. It is a partnership between research scientists and communities, and its main charge is to better understand how environmental exposures lead to disease. Understanding these processes can lead to early diagnosis, intervention, and prevention strategies.
“This new award allows us to continue to build environmental health research at Penn so that we remain an elite, competitive institution in this area,” says Trevor Penning, PhD, CEET director and professor of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics.
“The synergistic combination of basic and clinician-scientists allows CEET to conduct high-impact, translational environmental health sciences research,” added Reynold Panettieri, MD, CEET deputy director and professor of Pulmonary Medicine. “This award will allow for better studies in environmental health science and designing precision therapy for vulnerable individuals.”
Through CEET’s Community Outreach and Engagement Core, environmental health questions raised by the community are translated into research questions to be addressed by CEET investigator teams. Using this approach, CEET supports the Penn Superfund Research Center, which studies the remediation, transport, and fate of asbestos at the BoRIT superfund site in West Ambler, Pa.; and mechanisms of how asbestos mediates its adverse health effects including mesothelioma.
Using similar approaches, CEET investigators are also tackling the health consequences of hydraulic fracturing and the impact of urban air pollution in Philadelphia.
Overall, CEET provides the tools for faculty to conduct cutting-edge environmental health research by maintaining the following assets:
CONTACT:
Karen Kreeger
215-349-5658
karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu
Do people still care about the environment? Is Earth Day still relevant? We no longer see thousands of protestors in the street like we did in the 70’s during the first few Earth Days. Perhaps in this digitally connected time, people show that they care differently. Penn’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology researches environmental health questions. We asked Philadelphians about what topics in Environmental Health they thought we should be researching. We received over a hundred different recommendations from over a thousand people. We are convinced; people do care about the environment and the impact of the environment on their health and the health of our planet. People are practicing the core principles of Earth Day when they select organic fruits at the market, work toward environmental justice in their communities, question health effects of chemicals contained in personal care products, sit on a zoning board determining how close a school should be to a highway, or participate on a Community Advisory Board for a Superfund Site. Good research yields the science that informs the decisions we make for our personal and community environmental health. Thanks to the efforts of those who so actively advocated for the environment 45 years ago leading to the first Earth Day, we have had the privilege to conduct research answering key environmental health questions which lead to informed decisions and good public policy. Science has informed policy leading to better air quality and cleaner bodies of water throughout the US. Research has shown that some of the initial steps that were taken to improve environmental health are not adequate to address all of the impacts. Soils in cities around the country have remnants of the industry that was once there like lead, mercury, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and other chemicals. There are emerging threats to our drinking water supply from the myriad of personal care products and medications that go into waste water that are not removed by our waste water treatment plants. The air that we breathe still contains unhealthy particulate, ozone and toxic chemicals in many places.
New questions have been raised like: Can what I eat change the way my genes are expressed in my children? How do the multiple exposures that I have every day combine to affect me? What are the environmental health impacts of newer methods of energy extraction? How will we have clean drinking water when our waste water treatment plants are not equipped to remove medications? What ongoing impacts to health will exposure to the waste of prior industrial processes have? Although we have learned much and made great progress since the first Earth Day, now more than ever we must rely on science to take the next steps and answer the questions of our time. Please contact us if you would like to hear more about our efforts or have community environmental problems that we might help with.
Marilyn Howarth, MD
Director, CEET Community Outreach and Engagement Core
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.
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.
Our COEC has been working with Philadelphia Air Management Services (AMS) as they expand their monitoring network for air quality (AQ) in South Philadelphia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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!
Researchers from the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology have recently been awarded a $10 million grant from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to study asbestos exposure pathways that lead to mesothelioma, the bioremediation of this hazardous material, and mechanisms that lead to asbestos-related diseases.
The grant creates a new Center, Penn Superfund Research and Training Program (SRP) Center, Directed by Ian Blair, PhD, a researcher with extensive experience in biomarker research elucidating the toxicology of chemicals. This blog will continue to highlight the exciting research that comes from the grant.
The Penn Superfund Research and Training Program (SRP) Center evolved from community concerns about living near the BoRit Asbestos Superfund site in Ambler, PA. The Penn Superfund Center is academically located at CEET in Philadelphia, about 20 miles South of Ambler. The Center’s approach will be interdisciplinary involving researchers from the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine as well as Fox Chase Cancer Center. A unique interdisciplinary training program will marry environmental science and environmental health sciences so that doctoral and postdoctoral students will be trained in both complementary disciplines. Unique features of this training include participation in Superfund webinars sponsored by NIEHS and internships in technology transfer at CTT and the EPA.
The Center will address community-based questions or concerns that have been previously identified by the community through the Community Outreach and Engagement Core:
Ambler residents have a long history of occupational and/or environmental exposure to asbestos. As a result residents of the area face very serious long-term health consequences. The Pennsylvania Department of Health and the COEC at CEET determined an increased rate of mesothelioma in the area compared to other adjacent zip codes. Women had a greater risk than men, despite being less likely to have worked in the asbestos industry. Our researchers will continue to investigate and work with the community to acquire more information about exposure pathways that led to these health risks. The residents in South and West Ambler remain at risk for environmental exposure.
The work and results from the Center’s research will inform other areas of asbestos exposure across the country. For example, a sociological study to identify how asbestos exposure can occur and whether this can explain the cluster of asbestos-induced mesotheliomas in Ambler will be conducted by Fran Barg and Ted Emmett. The results may be applicable to the 15 other Superfund asbestos sites in the US.
This award and the development of the Penn Superfund Research and Training Program Center is the first NIEHS Superfund grant driven by problems identified in a community-academic partnership and promotes bi-directional communication between the University and the community. The interdisciplinary center is uniquely qualified to address the concerns relating to asbestos exposure that have been identified by the Ambler community.
The SRP website is currently being developed and will have the most up to date information regarding the Center, the research, and how to get involved.
You can also visit Resources for Education and Action for Community Health in Ambler (REACH Ambler) and the BoRit Community Advisory Group (CAG) Website
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!
We are going to highlight the Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) and the Lung and Airway Disease Affinity Group and its work on asthma with Dr. Reynold Panettieri
The Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) focuses on identifying important research questions that can directly address human disease.
In the Lung and Airway Disease Affinity Group, we focus on understanding the cause of asthma and COPD with a focus on new therapeutic agents. Our research at the Lung and Airway Disease Affinity Group and IHSFC is unique. We are one of seven centers nationwide that have a human exposure chamber to directly test hypotheses related to human health. Additionally, we have new experimental platforms using human cells that greatly enhance the relevance of our work. Our laboratory has been active for the past 22 years and has specifically focused on novel therapeutics in the treatment of COPD and asthma. Although we have a legacy of research in this area, our focus is always on using up-to-date, state-of-the-art approaches to address problems.
We help children and adults who have or are affected by asthma. Asthma rates in Philadelphia are some of the highest in the country. In some neighborhoods, asthma rates are as high as 26%!
Our recent evidence suggests that vitamin D is a critical therapeutic that can improve airway obstruction and inflammation seen in asthma and COPD. We are optimistic that the development of vitamin D inhaled solutions may greatly impact human health.
Our laboratories are consistently recruiting research subjects for a number of important studies in asthma and COPD. Visit our website (http://www.med.upenn.edu/airways/), to learn more about opportunities to participate in our research.
Follow #IamEH for all of our posts and learn about what environmental health questions are being asked all over the country!
