The Columbia Center For Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH): Research Findings
The CCCEH is carrying out multilevel research and interventions in the community to reduce the risk of asthma, developmental disorders, and cancer in children. The goal is to identify environmental risk factors and community-based strategies for reducing those risks.This research evolved out of growing concern that exposure both in the womb and during childhood to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other ambient pollutants, environmental tobacco smoke, metals, pesticides and allergens, which are disproportionately concentrated in low-income urban areas, may have adverse affects on children's growth and development, asthma, and/or cancer risk. The Center has enrolled a cohort of pregnant women residing in the low-income areas of Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx and is following them and their children for several years in order to ascertain health outcomes and determine the efficacy of interventions. The Center is using a combination of monitoring techniques and biomarkers to document exposures, their preclinical effects, and nutritional susceptibility. Multilevel analyses are being carried out to determine the relationships between community-level and individual level exposures and stressors. The Center is working in partnership with local community organizations, including the West Harlem Environmental Action Coalition, Inc. (WEACT), Alianza Dominicana, and the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans. Preliminary data on exposure levels, biomarkers, and disease rates will be presented, as well as data regarding in utero sensitization to home allergens. A community- wide health education campaign on prevention of environmental threats to children's health will be described.
Learning Objectives: communicate research methods and findings
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.