Grantee Research Project Results
Center for Native American Environmental Health Equity Research
EPA Grant Number: R836157Center: Center for Native American Environmental Health Equity Research
Center Director: Lewis, Johnnye Lynn
Title: Center for Native American Environmental Health Equity Research
Investigators: Lewis, Johnnye Lynn , MacKenzie, Debra Ann , Cerrato Corrales, Jose Manuel , Hudson, Laurie , Gonzales, Melissa
Current Investigators: Lewis, Johnnye Lynn , Gonzales, Melissa , Hudson, Laurie , Cerrato Corrales, Jose Manuel , MacKenzie, Debra Ann
Institution: University of New Mexico
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2020 (Extended to June 30, 2021)
Project Amount: $1,500,000
RFA: NIH/EPA Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research (2015) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health
Objective:
Nearly half of the Native American population of the United States lives in 13 western states where there are an estimated 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines, more than 4,000 are abandoned uranium mines. These communities have been inextricably linked to their environments for millennia. Because of their reliance on natural resources to maintain traditional diets, lifestyles, customs and languages, these tribal communities have direct and frequent contact with metal mixtures from unremediated mine sites, creating exposures through multiple pathways, including inhalation, drinking water, and ingestion of food sources either directly or indirectly contaminated by migration of the wastes. Exacerbating these exposures are disparities in infrastructure, especially drinking water supplies and unique social determinants of health (SDH) from poverty in rural and isolated locations. Together, environmental health (EH) disparities and social determinants combine to create a potential sensitivity to toxicity and disparate disease outcomes in tribal communities. Addressing these pervasive EH disparities with primary biomedical and environmental research and Native-focused community engagement is the focus of the University of New Mexico’s proposed Center for Native American Environmental Health Equity Research, or “Native EH Equity”. The partners in the center consists of three University research programs and three tribal nations – Navajo, Sioux and Crow- with plans to expand to a fourth tribal region in later years of the project. Native EH Equity extends the work in progress within each of these communities over the last two decades to fill gaps in existing knowledge for each tribe. The proposed partnership address Research Priority areas 1, 2, 3, and 5 through a strong partnership that will examine and compare mechanisms of toxicity in mining waste metal mixtures of different composition across three tribal populations. The distribution of contaminants, cultural practices, and genetic origins of the three core tribes involved provide a basis for the first steps in sorting out the health effects of metal mixtures in tribal communities. Our partnership creates the opportunity for comparison across these groups to expand our understanding of mixed-metal toxicity and our confidence in the characteristics of the exposures, and the populations, that influence the generalizability of the results. The proposed work also strives to build the research capacity, the understanding of data, and interpretation and use of biomedical results across these communities, as well as to develop a framework that characterizes the unique exposure pathways and defines health from a perspective not only reflective of tribal perceptions, but ultimately useful in informing regulatory decision- making.
Journal Articles: 14 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 90 publications | 14 publications in selected types | All 14 journal articles |
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Dasher-Titus EJ, Hoover J, Luo L, Lee J-H, Du R, Liu KJ, Traber MG, Ho E, Lewis J, Hudson LG. Metal exposure and oxidative stress markers in pregnant Navajo Birth Cohort Study participants. Free Radical Biology and Medicine 2018;124:484-492. |
R836157 (2018) R836157 (2019) |
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Doyle JT, Kindness L, Realbird J, Eggers MJ, Camper AK. Challenges and opportunities for tribal waters:addressing disparities in safe public drinking water on the Crow Reservation in Montana, USA. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018;15(4):567. |
R836157 (2018) R836157 (2019) R835594 (2018) R835594 (Final) |
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Eggers MJ, Doyle JT, Lefthand MJ, Young SL, Moore-Nall AL, Kindness L, Other Medicine R, Ford TE, Dietrich E, Parker AE, Hoover JH, Camper AK. Community engaged cumulative risk assessment of exposure to inorganic well water contaminants, Crow Reservation, Montana. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018;15(1):76 (34 pp.). |
R836157 (2018) |
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Eggers MJ, Doyle JT, Lefthand MJ, Young SL, Moore-Nall AL, Kindness L, Other Medicine R, Ford TE, Dietrich E, Parker AE, Hoover JH, Camper AK. Community engaged cumulative risk assessment of exposure to inorganic well water contaminants, Crow Reservation, Montana. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018;15(1):76. |
R836157 (2019) R835594 (2017) R835594 (2018) R835594 (Final) |
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Erdei E, O'Donald E, Luo L, Enright K, OlLeary M, Mackenzie D, Doyle J, Eggers M, Keil D, Lewis J, Henderson J, Rubin R. Comparison of circulating and excreted metals and of autoimmunity between two Great Plains Tribal communities. JOURNAL OF AUTOIMMUNITY 2024;149 |
R836157 (Final) |
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Girlamo C, Lin Y, Hoover J, Beene D, Woldeyohannes T, Liu Z, Campen M, MacKenzie D, Lewis J. Meteorological data source comparison-a case study in geospatial modeling of potential environmental exposure to abandoned uranium mine sites in the Navajo Nation. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 2023;195(7):834 |
R836157 (2020) |
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Gonzales M, King E, Bobelu J, Ghahate DM, Madrid T, Lesansee S, Shah V. Perspectives on biological monitoring in environmental health research: a focus group study in a Native American community. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018;15(6):1129 (8 pp.). |
R836157 (2018) R836157 (2019) |
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Harmon ME, Lewis J, Miller C, Hoover J, Ali AS, Shuey C, Cajero M, Lucas S, Zychowski K, Pacheco B, Erdei E, Ramone S, Nez T, Gonzales M, Campen MJ. Residential proximity to abandoned uranium mines and serum inflammatory potential in chronically exposed Navajo communities. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 2017;27(4):365-371. |
R836157 (2018) R836157 (2019) |
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Hoover JH, Coker E, Barney Y, Shuey C, Lewis J. Spatial clustering of metal and metalloid mixtures in unregulated water sources on the Navajo Nation – Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, USA. Science of The Total Environment 2018;633:1667-1678. |
R836157 (2018) R836157 (2019) |
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Hoover J, Gonzales M, Shuey C, Barney Y, Lewis J. Elevated arsenic and uranium concentrations in unregulated water sources on the Navajo Nation, USA. Exposure and Health 2017;9(2):113-124. |
R836157 (2016) R836157 (2017) R836157 (2019) |
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Hoover J, Coker E, Erdei E, Luo L, MacKenzie D, Lewis J. Preterm Birth and Metal Mixture Exposure among Pregnant Women from the Navajo Birth Cohort Study. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2023;131(12). |
R836157 (Final) |
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Lewis J, Hoover J, MacKenzie D. Mining and environmental health disparities in Native American communities. Current Environmental Health Reports 2017;4(2):130-141. |
R836157 (2017) R836157 (2019) |
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Rodriguez-Freire L, Avasarala S, Ali AS, Agnew D, Hoover JH, Artyushkova K, Latta DE, Peterson EJ, Lewis J, Crossey LJ, Brearley AJ, Cerrato JM. Post Gold King Mine spill investigation of metal stability in water and sediments of the Animas River watershed. Environmental Science & Technology 2016;50(21):11539-11548. |
R836157 (2016) R836157 (2017) R836157 (2019) |
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Saup CM, Williams KH, Rodríguez-Freire L, Cerrato JM, Johnston MD, Wilkins MJ. Anoxia stimulates microbially catalyzed metal release from Animas River sediments. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts 2017;19(4):578-585. |
R836157 (2017) R836157 (2019) |
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Progress and Final Reports:
Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R836157C001 Metals and metal mixtures in DNA damage and repair
R836157C002 Development of biomarkers of autoimmunity in 3 tribal communities exposed to mixed metal contaminants
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.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2020 Progress Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2018 Progress Report
- 2017 Progress Report
- 2016 Progress Report
14 journal articles for this center