Environmental Health Research Opportunities and Community Practice Opportunities with Phil Brown
Flame Retardant Chemicals: Their Social Discovery as a Case Study for Emerging Contaminants
Flame retardant chemicals, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), are ubiquitous in daily life, and biological and environmental accumulation will persist for years to come. High levels have been found in breast milk, household furniture, smoke inhaled by firefighters, and household dust. Although research has clearly identified that these chemicals are associated with neurological, reproductive, developmental, and other health problems, these chemicals are widely used in household products. This research project focuses on the discovery of the dangers of these chemicals, both initially in the 1970’s and the renewed focus since 2000; why these chemicals continue to be used, in spite of their known dangers and a lack of evidence that they effectively reduce fire danger; the successes and failures of advocates for banning or regulation of flame retardant chemicals; and how flame retardant chemicals serve as a case study for how scientists and citizens respond to emerging contaminants. Data includes content analysis of the scientific literature; analysis of regulatory documents and public testimony; observation of scientific projects, community meetings, and public hearings; and interviews with scientists, physicians, firefighters and other high-exposure occupations, activists, corporations that produce flame retardants and others that use those flame retardants in consumer products, participants in household exposure studies, and government officials. One sub-project for which I would like someone to work on at this time examines why and how certain environmental organizations have chosen to focus on flame retardants and/or other chemicals. Another sub-project focuses on the impact of the original Swedish breastmilk study that launched major concern with flame retardants, developing a model for diffusion in exposure science and chemical regulation.
Ethical and Legal Challenges in Communicating Individual Biomonitoring and Personal Exposure Results to Study Participants: Guidance for Researchers and Institutional Review Boards
This project (Brown, Berkeley, Silent Spring Institute, Harvard Law School) examines the experiences, values, and attitudes of participants in four diverse personal exposure assessment studies: California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program, the first state level legislatively mandated biomonitoring program, Cohort Study of Young Girls' Nutrition, Environment, and Transitions (CYGNET) , an epidemiologic study of the influence of environmental, dietary, and other factors on the timing and tempo of pubertal maturation in girls, which is a part of the NIEHS Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers; Community Exposure to Perfluorooctanoic Acid (C8) Study, a study of elevated blood levels of ammonium perfluorooctanate (PFOA or C8) resulting from contamination of drinking water in Little Hocking, Ohio; and the Is It In Us? study in which blood and urine samples from 35 volunteers were tested in 2007 for phthalates, BPA, and PBDEs. We also study the perspectives of IRB members, researchers, clinicians, and legal experts in order to provide guidance about best practices for ethical protocols to report individual results in personal exposure research. We examine whether there are legal obligations for participants who learn results for their home to disclose contaminant levels to others. We are conducting a September 21, 2010 conference on “The Ethics of Reporting Personal Environmental Exposures.” Further, the project defines best practices, and disseminates those to government, academic, and advocacy researchers.
Community Outreach Core of Superfund Research Program
Brown is one of 19 universities with NIEHS Superfund Research Program grants. Through the Community Outreach Core, we work with community-based organizations (Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, Environmental Neighborhood Awareness Committee of Tiverton, Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, Mashapaug Pond Residents Group, and Urban Pond Procession Project), work with the RI Department of Environmental Management on various things, including the Brownfields Environmental Equity Workgroup, introduce successful legislation on toxics issues, and collaborate with other groups and institutions on statewide campaigns such as the Diesel Pollution Initiative, food security, and free public education to teens and adults through the Community Environmental College and the Science Café series. New projects to begin in fall 2010 are Readers’ Theater (staged readings of short plays written by community residents), Book/Video-Mobile lending library, and working with Alliance for Climate Education to get their high school curriculum in all Providence schools.
Ethical Issues In Fetal Transplantation
This involves the Community Outreach and Translation Core of the NIEHS/EPA Children’s Environmental Health Center. The program grant focuses on the use of human fetal tissues for mechanistic investigations and biomarker development. Human fetal tissues will be xenotransplanted into an immunodeficient rodent host, the host will be exposed to an environmental stressor, and pathway alterations, dose response and novel biomarkers of effect will be identified. The outreach component will develop an ethics model for the research use of fetal tissue and provide ethics education and consultation to Center staff, provide ethics education, outreach, and consultation for hospital staff and IRB, provide education and capacity-building for patients on fetal tissue research and informed consent, provide education and capacity building for the broad public, both in Rhode Island and nationally, provide education for the overall Brown University community, work on getting hospital units to go phthalate-free, and publish research articles on ethics of fetal tissue research.
Making Sense of Personal Environmental Exposure Data: Graphs, Text, and Public Understanding
This project develops and test ethical, effective, and practical methods for reporting individual exposure results to participants in studies that use biomonitoring or sampling in personal environments for emerging contaminants for which health implications are uncertain. In addition, it examines news media reporting of personal exposure studies, which influences study participants’ and public understanding of exposure results. We will refine and test graphics and text methods for reporting back biomonitoring and personal environmental exposure data to study participants; investigate how journalists report on studies that have individual measures of exposure, and design report-back methods for the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (CECBP) and test them on California residents.
The following projects involve community organizations with which I work. While I will provide some direction on these, most direction will come from the collaborating organizations. These projects are, to be sure, capable of being done for course or thesis credit.
Environmental Health Outreach Inventory
An inventory of existing resources and organizations working to improve environmental health literacy by providing information on public health and chemical exposures and conducting outreach currently does not exist in one central location. Such an inventory, which would compile all of these resources in one place, ideally as an annotated bibliography of sorts, could have myriad benefits: for community members looking to build their own environmental health literacy; for people in government, civil society, or industry working to conduct their own outreach around issues of environmental health; and more. Such an inventory would also allow us to understand where there are gaps that can be filled and where there are opportunities for collaboration. This project would be a great way for a student to get a very thorough lay of the land of environmental health by having the opportunity to research various different entities; this project would also allow for potential networking with some members of the CDC/ATSDR’s National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures’ Education and Communication workgroup, who have expressed an interest to creating such an inventory and have begun to compile initial thoughts that they would be willing to share. [If you are interested, please contact Alison Cohen (akcohen@berkeley.edu) and/or Phil Brown (Phil_Brown@brown.edu).]
Updating “Not In My Schoolyard” Report (Siting of schools in environmentally damaged areas)
In 2006, Rhode Island Legal Services released a report “Not In My Schoolyard,” which surveyed laws, policies and regulations in each of the 50 states related to the siting of schools relative to natural and man-made environmental hazards (e.g., floodplains, earthquake faults, sources of air pollution, noise, and soil contamination). The survey was conducted in 2004-05 and is in need of updating. To update the survey researchers will look at websites containing state laws and regulations, as well as websites of state environmental and education agencies—to see if any new materials have been posted. From the initial research there are files for each state—so researchers would only have to look for new materials. Researchers will be trained by a Rhode Island Legal Services attorney on what kinds of materials to look for and how to navigate through the websites. The 2006 report is available on-line at http://www.nylpi.org/images/FE/chain234siteType8/site203/client/EJ%20-%20Not%20in%20My%20Schoolyard%20-%20Improving%20Site%20Selection%20Process.pdf