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Michigan Center for the Environment and Childrens Health

University of Michigan

Childhood asthma is one of the most common chronic pediatric diseases and poses a serious public health problem. The prevalence of the disease in the city of Detroit is particularly high, reflecting the trends found elsewhere among urban populations and communities of color. The Michigan Center for the Environment and Children’s Health (MCECH) will engage in coordinated interdisciplinary research aimed at: 1) identifying children with asthma and assess their household, school, and neighborhood environment, 2) increasing knowledge and behavior to reduce environmental hazards in households and neighborhoods, thereby improving asthma-related health status, 3) examining the effects of daily and seasonal fluctuations in indoor and outdoor ambient air quality on pulmonary function and severity of asthma symptoms, 4) determining the effects of allergen-induced local, excessive production of chemokines on redox status and innervation of the bronchial tree, and 5) developing specific mechanisms for communication and translation of laboratory and community-based research across disciplines and to community partners. The Center will include three research cores, Asthma Intervention (Core 1), Asthma Exposure (Core 2) and Asthma Chemokines (Core 3), supported by two Facility Cores (Biostatistics and Exposure Assessment) and an Administrative Core, and two new Center Scientists.

The Center is a partnership involving the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health and Medicine, the Detroit Health Department, Henry Ford Health System, community-based organizations based on the southwest and east sides of Detroit, including Butzel Family Center, Community Health and Social Services Center (CHASS), Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Friends of Parkside, Kettering/Butzel Health Initiative, Latino Family Services, United Community Housing Coalition, and Warren/Conner Development Coalition, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) The Center builds on a partnership established in 1995 by the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC), one of three "Urban Centers for Applied Research" funded by the CDC. The Detroit URC seeks to develop and implement prevention research that improves the health of children and families in selected communities in southwest and east side Detroit. The Detroit URC Board, comprised of representatives of many of the same partners currently participating in the new Center, adopted a set of "Community-Based Research Principles" to guide the development of research projects carried out in conjunction with the URC. These research principles include an emphasis on: the local relevance of public health problems; the involvement of community, practitioner, and academic partners in all major phases of the research process; the conduct of research that is beneficial to the community involved; and the dissemination of research findings to community members in ways that are understandable and useful. In 1996 the URC Board, after a review of relevant data and discussion of interests and needs of partner organizations, identified three overall priority areas for developing new community-based prevention research projects. One of these priorities was the area of environmental health and in particular housing and air quality as it relates to asthma in children. The URC Board enthusiastically and unanimously decided to be involved in submitting a proposal for the new Center that would focus on identifying and reducing environmental exposures considered to be associated with asthma health status in children.

A description of the three core research projects, and an overview of the administrative structure and functions is provided below.

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Main Center Abstract and Reports:

A Western Center for Estuarine Indicators Research which will Develop Indicators of Wetlands Ecosystem Health
Ambient Particle Health Effects: Exposure, Susceptibility, and Mechanisms
Consortium for Estuarine Ecoindicator Research for the Gulf of Mexico (CEER-GOM)
FRIENDS Children's Environmental Health Center
Hazardous Substance Research Center–South and Southwest
Centers of Excellence in Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research
The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc., Environmental Research and Technology Transfer Program
Hazardous Substance Research Center/South and Southwest
Harvard Particle Center
Texas Joint Center for Air Quality
The Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA)
Center for Integrating Statistical and Environmental Science
Inner City Toxicants, Child Growth and Development
Metal Mixtures and Children’s Health
Center for Children's Environmental Health Research
Carolina Center for Computational Toxicology
The Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINT)
Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE)
Center for Children’s Environmental Health and DiseasePreventionResearch (P01) (joint EPA and NIEHS) - CHAMACOS
Endotoxin Exposure and Asthma in Children
Novel Methods to Assess Effects of Bisphenol A (BPA) & Phthalates on Child Development
Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers: Formative Centers
Berkeley/Stanford Children’s Environmental Health Center
Air Pollution Mixtures: Health Effects Across Life Stages
Environmental Research and Technology Transfer Program of The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc.
Center for Reinventing Aging Infrastructure for Nutrient Management (RAINmgt)
Center for Comprehensive, optimaL, and Effective Abatement of Nutrients
Water Environment and Reuse Foundation (WE&RF)'s National Center for Resource Recovery and Nutrient Management
UC Berkeley/Stanford Children's Environmental Health Center
The UCSF Pregnancy Exposures to Environmental Chemicals (PEEC) Children's Center
Novel Methods to Assess the Effects of Chemicals on Child Development
Water Innovation Network for Sustainable Small Systems (WINSSS)
Cardiotoxicity Adverse Outcome Pathway: Organotypic Culture Model and in vitro-to-in vivo Extrapolation for High-throughput Hazard, Dose-response and Variability Assessments
SEARCH: Solutions to Energy, AiR, Climate, and Health
Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing across the Life Course
Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment
A Sustainable Center for Crowd-Sourced Water Infrastructure Modeling

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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.

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Last updated April 28, 2023