Grantee Research Project Results

2007 Progress Report: Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research – Community Outreach and Translation Core

EPA Grant Number: R831710C004
Subproject: this is subproject number 004 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R831710
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment - 2015
Center Director: Metayer, Catherine
Title: Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research – Community Outreach and Translation Core
Investigators: Alkon, Abbey , Eskenazi, Brenda , Winkleby, Marilyn , Minkler, Meredith , Wallestein, Nina
Institution: University of California - Berkeley
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: May 1, 2004 through October 31, 2008 (Extended to October 31, 2010)
Project Period Covered by this Report: May 1, 2006 through October 31, 2007
RFA: Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (2003) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health

Objective:

The Specific aims of this project are:

1. To create a community infrastructure necessary to ensure collective community participation in raising awareness of community environmental health hazards and developing initiatives to promote children’s environmental health.
2. To strengthen the capacity of community groups and organizations in the areas of community organizing, outreach, and environmental health promotion.
3. To disseminate Center study findings to a broad range of community members, community-based organizations, and stakeholders within the Salinas Valley in order to raise awareness of environmental health hazards and to develop initiatives to promote children’s environmental health.
4. To strengthen children’s environmental health awareness and risk prevention among the general public, clinicians and policy makers.

Progress Summary:

Specific Aim 1: Development of Community Infrastructure
During the past year we have continued to strengthen community infrastructure through our community partners, Community Advisory Board (CAB) and the Farmworker Council (FWC). We have continued to provide copies of all scientific manuscripts and press releases to the CAB and FWC prior to publication.

Community Advisory Board (CAB): Our most recent CAB meeting was held at Natividad Medical Center on October 10th, 2006. During the meeting we discussed new findings regarding pesticide exposure levels, neurodevelopment, and the field intervention study. We also discussed future plans for exposure sub-studies, outreach and health education efforts, and the seven-year assessment. CAB members provided active feedback and made recommendations for outreach. Our next meeting will be November 8th, 2007.

Farmworker Council (FWC): Our last FWC meeting was held November 4th, 2006. At this meeting, the FWC helped develop the policy component of a grant proposal for a health education project based on the popular Mexican Bingo game known as Loteria.

Specific Aim 2: Capacity Building in Community Organizing, Outreach and Health Promotion
We work closely with our CAB and FWC to promote awareness of children’s environmental health issues in the Salinas Valley. At their recommendation, we continue to present research results and information about children’s environmental health issues to community organizations. This has been a reciprocal process whereby the community provides us with ideas for outreach and we provide them with reliable scientific information and an understanding of the scientific process.

Specific Aim 3: Dissemination of Center Findings within the Salinas Valley
During year 4, we continued to disseminate study results within the Salinas Valley.

Annual Report to Participants: As in previous years, we sent an annual report to participants in the form of a bilingual, low-literacy newsletter. The newsletter summarizes important findings, provides environmental health tips to parents, and invites families to our annual participant meeting.

CHAMACOS Website: We conducted a complete overhaul of our webpage this year. It now contains health education materials for community groups and individuals to download, as well as scientific findings.

Community Presentations: We continue to disseminate our findings via community presentations. We conducted presentations with 755 Salinas Valley adults in Year 4, for a total cumulative outreach of 5517 adults since the project’s start.

Healthy Homes Trainings: In Year 4 we collaborated with the National Center for Healthy Homes to conduct Salinas Valley trainings regarding environmental health and housing. The training, “Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioners Course,” was delivered in Spanish and in English. Nineteen people attended the English-language training, the majority from the local health department. Most of the 39 Spanish-language training participants were employed by community-based organizations that provide health, housing, or advocacy education and training to farm workers and their families in the greater Salinas Valley.

Specific Aim 4: Strengthening Children’s Environmental Health Awareness beyond Salinas Valley
Our efforts in Year 4 to strengthen children’s environmental health awareness beyond the Salinas Valley involved activities elsewhere in Monterey County, the state, the nation, and internationally.

Prenatal Environmental Health Education Kiosk: This year we finished development and piloting of a health education tool (“the Kiosk”) that is tailored to low-income, Spanish-speaking, pregnant women.This exciting new program uses an interactive, touch-screen computer program with an audio component that directs pregnant women to navigate through approximately 60 screens of information about common environmental health exposures and practical prevention strategies. The program is designed for use by women and family members during routine prenatal healthcare visits. We piloted the program with 187 pregnant women at Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas during June and July, 2007. We also provided copies of the program to all other Monterey County prenatal health care programs that serve low-income, Spanish-speaking women.

Outreach to Childcare Providers: Dr. Asa Bradman has continued to conduct trainings on children’s environmental health for childcare providers. During Year 4, he presented at the California Association for the Education of Young Children, the California Child Care Resources and Referral Network, and the Monterey County Childcare Planning Council. In addition, Dr. Bradman worked with project staff in Salinas to translate the training, and the staff has begun to conduct the trainings in Spanish.

Internships, mentorship, and training opportunities for students and staff: During Year 4, we conducted a presentation on children’s environmental health issues to college students at California State University at Monterey Bay. We provided internship opportunities to two college students in the summer of 2007, and continued to provide trainings to project staff on outreach and health education.

Outreach to Health Care Providers: In May 2007, we conducted a Grand Rounds presentation at Kaiser Medical Center in Oakland to raise awareness of children’s environmental health issues among health care providers. We also presentated at the University of California, Berkeley Student Health Services.

Press Releases: Our work has been the subject of several media reports in Year 4 (see Overview section).

Outreach to Policy Makers: Dr. Eskenazi has continued to work with the World Health Organization as they develop their policy on international use of DDT. Drs. Bradman and McKone have recently been appointed to the state’s Scientific Guidance Panel, in which capacity they will advise on the implementation of the California Biomonitoring Act. We also continue to collaborate with scientists at the California Department of Health Services, a number of whom are members of our Center, and with members of the Monterey County Health Department and Agricultural Commissioner, some of whom sit on our CAB.

Educational Publications: During Year 4 we developed the Prenatal Environmental Health Education Kiosk, which is a computer program and is available for installation on any Apple computer. We also refined several of our health education brochures to hand out to women who used the Prenatal Environmental Health Education Kiosk. The brochures covered the following topics:

Envenenamiento con Plomo/ Lead Poisoning (2007) (Spanish/English)
Exposición al Sol/ Sun Exposure (2007) (Spanish/English)
Alergias/Allergies (2007) (Spanish/English)
Monóxido de Carbono/ Carbon Monoxide (2007) (Spanish/English)
Pesticidas/ Pesticides (2007) (Spanish/English)

Future Activities:

We will continue outreach and translation activities the Salinas Valley and beyond in Year 5. In addition to continued meetings with our community advisory boards, we will use community forums, an annual report, and other outreach activities to educate the Salinas Valley community on our findings and on other environmental health issues of importance. We will also target outreach to childcare and healthcare providers, pregnant women, and families though the initiatives discussed above, and will disseminate the Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk to other providers across the state and nation.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 1 publications for this subproject

Supplemental Keywords:

community, outreach, prevention, exposure, pesticides, education, organophosphate, intervention, farmworker,, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Health Risk Assessment, Children's Health, Risk Assessment, health effects, pesticide exposure, community-based intervention, immune system effects, airway disease, environmental risks, respiratory problems, Human Health Risk Assessment, assessment of exposure, childhood respiratory disease, children's environmental health, environmental health hazard, outreach and education, agricultural community, allergen

Relevant Websites:

http://www.chamacos.org Exit

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2004

2005

2006 Progress Report

2008

2009

Final

Main Center Abstract and Reports:

R831710    Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment - 2015

Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R831710C001 Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research – CHAMACOS Community Based Research Project
R831710C002 Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research – Pesticide Exposure Assessment Project
R831710C003 Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research – Mechanisms of Pesticide Neuro- and Immunotoxicity
R831710C004 Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research – Community Outreach and Translation Core