Grantee Research Project Results
2007 Progress Report: Community Translation and Application Core (COTAC)
EPA Grant Number: R832141C005Subproject: this is subproject number 005 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R832141
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Water Environment and Reuse Foundation's National Center for Resource Recovery and Nutrient Management
Center Director: Olabode, Lola
Title: Community Translation and Application Core (COTAC)
Investigators: Perera, Frederica P.
Institution: Columbia University in the City of New York
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: November 1, 2003 through October 31, 2008 (Extended to October 31, 2010)
Project Period Covered by this Report: November 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 the project are to: 1) translate the Center’s research results to be understood and used by non-scientific audiences; 2) disseminate children’s environmental health findings to community residents and the broader public using various media; 3) apply scientific findings to the policy arena by educating and empowering community members to mobilize around environmental issues that challenge community health; & 4) to analyze risks and costs associated with environmental pollutants.
Progress Summary:
Study Newsletters
CCCEH remains a leader in the field of communicating results of its research to low-literate, bilingual, and/or immigrant adults. This year, COTAC disseminated newsletters for the study cohort of 725 Washington Heights, Harlem, and South Bronx families on pesticides and mercury. For every newsletter, COTAC developed useful items for families in the Mothers & Newborns Study that reinforced one health message from each newsletter. The first item was a refrigerator magnet that gives ten tips for safely cleaning up a small mercury spill. The second item was a writing notepad for grocery items that lists the safest fish for pregnant and breastfeeding women to eat. The current item being developed is a tool-kit that will reinforce the key message for Integrated Pest Management for the women in the study. Dr. Chris Zarcadoolas, an expert in health and environmental literacy at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was consulted on the development of content, language, and design of these materials to help communicate health messages most effectively to our target audience.
Broad Community Medical Education Initiative
CCCEH effectively shares its children’s environmental health research findings with the public. COTAC is currently developing educational posters to be displayed in free clinics, OB/GYN, pediatrician, and family doctor’s offices, as well as to community and service organizations working with parents, other caregivers, and families throughout Northern Harlem and the South Bronx. The posters repackage content from the newsletters with an emphasis on descriptive graphics for a low-literate audience. In order to ensure the effectiveness of these materials, COTAC staff met with members of the CCCEH Community Advisory Board (CAB) in August 2007 to test the effectiveness of these new materials and gain feedback on this new initiative. Feedback was positive and the CAB provided excellent suggestions for improving this project. This initiative will disseminate our Center’s work throughout those communities that are being disproportionately affected by environmental pollutants. COTAC will be continuing this work over the next year, developing posters that coincide with the Healthy Home, Healthy Child newsletters.
Program Evaluation
COTAC has begun testing the quality and effectiveness of the community education materials with the Mothers & Newborns Study cohort. For the past few months, CCCEH research workers have been administering a questionnaire to the mothers in the study to assess how effective COTAC’s study poster has been at translating difficult scientific findings and study data into useable information. Preliminary results indicate that the study poster, particularly its use of pictures and realistic drawings, has been effective at conveying certain key health concepts to the mothers in the study.
Dissemination
As the Center generates additional research findings, COTAC has continued to share new results through regular mailings of key scientific papers to local physicians, public interest groups, and community organizations working with parents, other caregivers of young children, youth, and families. Investigators also continue to present their latest research results and findings in the field of children’s environmental health at Grand Rounds for OB/GYN and pediatric residents.
Community Trainings on Housing and Health
CCCEH’s lead community partner, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, informs the broad local community about children’s environmental health and the Center’s work by speaking regularly at community board meetings, borough presidents’ cabinet meetings, and neighborhood health fairs. It has continues to develop the citywide network, Our Housing is Our Health (OHOH), which is comprised of many organizations collaborating to empower communities to take effective action to mitigate health effects of environmental exposures related to poor quality housing. The network has grown to include over 20 core members and the OHOH Campaign Coordinator has reached out to over 15 new housing and environmental organizations to recruit them to the network. WE ACT has also joined two citywide coalitions called the New York is Our Home Coalition and Coalition for Asthma Free Homes as a means to recruit other possible members and disseminate information based on CCCEH research that can be of use to other organizations also working on mitigating indoor health hazards. WE ACT has also presented at several meetings held by tenant associations and other community based entities about addressing household toxins. Recently, members of the Healthy Homes Street Team have been involved in a survey with CCCEH to determine the availability of harmful pesticides in Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and South Bronx. The Street Team is an organizing project comprised of community leaders from across New York City, who are committed to creating healthier communities through direct action. The original members of the Street Team all graduated from WE ACT’s Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training and work to use research, investigation, and peer-to-peer communication to find solutions to local community problems.
National Dissemination of CCCEH Research
WE ACT presents results of its community-academic partnership with CCCEH, including scientific findings, to national audiences through keynote speeches & press conferences. This year, WE ACT staff presented strategies to implement Integrated Pest Management methods into practice to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, HPHI (a housing group in Boston), Columbia University, Harvard University as well as other organizations held at the New York Academy of Medicine; the Our Housing is Our Health Campaign Coordinator at WE ACT presented to a large group of tenant associations nationwide at the National Alliance of HUD Tenants in Washington DC on creating and sustaining healthy home environments by addressing problems related to indoor hazards such as mold, pests and lead.
Policy Initiatives
Members of CCCEH initiated a collaboration with Project THRIVE, a non-profit organization that is part of the National Center for Children in Poverty and is dedicated to the translation of research into effective policies to improve child health. We look forward to producing a policy brief on major children’s environmental health concerns together in the next few months.
Significance
COTAC plays a critical role in communicating Center research results to the local community, general public, policymakers, and clinicians, translating scientific findings into practical prevention, medical treatment and policy reform applications.
Future Activities:
COTAC will continue conducting similar work, expanding to include Year 10 activities.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 2 publications for this subprojectSupplemental Keywords:
RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, HUMAN HEALTH, Genetics, Health Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, Biochemistry, Health Effects, Children's Health, Environmental Policy, Risk Assessment, asthma, prenatal exposure, environmental risks, latino, genetic mechanisms, Human Health Risk Assessment, diesel exhaust, assessment of exposure, genetic risk factors, children's environmental health, exposure assessment, genetic susceptibilityProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R832141 Water Environment and Reuse Foundation's National Center for Resource Recovery and Nutrient Management Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R832141C001 Growth and Development Research Project: Prenatal and Postnatal Urban Pollutants and Neurobehavioral Developmental Outcomes
R832141C002 Research Project on Asthma: Prenatal and Postnatal Urban Pollutants and Childhood Asthma
R832141C003 Mechanistic Research Project
R832141C004 Community-Based Intervention Project: Reduction of Exposure and Risk from Pesticides and Allergens
R832141C005 Community Translation and Application Core (COTAC)
R832141C006 Exposure Assessment Facility Core
R832141C007 Data Management, Statistics and Community Impact Modeling Core
R832141C008 Administrative Core
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
2 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R832141
172 publications for this center
157 journal articles for this center