Grantee Research Project Results
The Bioecological Center For Rural Childrens Health BeRCH
EPA Grant Number: R840632Title: The Bioecological Center For Rural Childrens Health BeRCH
Investigators: Stanwood, Gregg D , Rosado, Javier
Institution: Florida State University
EPA Project Officer: Brooks, Donald
Project Period: September 1, 2023 through May 9, 2025
Project Amount: $1,900,000
RFA: Center for Early Lifestage Vulnerabilities to Environmental Stressors - Cumulative Health Impacts for Children in Underserved Rural Agricultural Communities in the United States Request for Applications (RFA) (2023) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Endocrine Disruptors , Children's Health
Description:
The Bioecological Center for Rural Children’s Health (BeRCH) is a forward-thinking and environmental justice-based center that focuses on identifying and mitigating the interactive cumulative health consequences of pathological synergies amongst chemical and non-chemical stressors in children.
Objective:
BeRCH will 1) multilaterally attend to both chemical and psychosocial stressors, 2) use transdisciplinary approaches to create new models, data streams and language to encompass insights drawing from intersectionality of disciplines, and 3) promote a participatory framework to increase community engagement and empowerment. Data collection will focus on Immokalee, FL. Immokalee is a rural region sandwiched between the Everglades National Park and the affluent beach communities of Fort Myers/Naples Metropolitan Statistical Area. Fully three-quarters of the Immokalee community is employed in agriculture.
Approach:
Project 1 will work primary at the level of the child/family in order to document the exposures of children in a farmworker community to chemical and non-chemical stressors, based on the hypothesis that these stressors interact with pathological synergy to alter biobehavioral development and negatively affect childhood and future health. Research Project 2 will use an exposome approach to develop a cumulative impact assessment that considers multiple processes (biophysical, built, health and healthcare, residential segregation) at the zip code level. Throughout, we will generate a participatory framework to increase community engagement and empowerment.
Expected Results:
Specific outputs include the generation of new data to advance the state of science around combinatorial stress exposures in childhood, development of new impact assessment tools and quantitative modeling of risk, and community-driven communications focusing on prevention, environmental health literacy, and environmental public health education associated with pesticide exposure and traumatic stressors. Outcomes include improved protections and health policy, improvements to the health of children and their and families in rural agricultural communities, insight into novel interventions, and achievement of environmental justice.
Supplemental Keywords:
air, drinking water, environmental education, public policy, toxic use reductionProgress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.