The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50452

Frederick L Tyson, PhD, Chemical Exposures and Molecular Biology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, PO Box 12233, MD EC 21, Research Triangle Park, NC 27713, 919 541 0176, tyson2@niehs.nih.gov

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has long been committed to putting the public into public health as evidenced by its Translational Research (TR) Program. The Community-based Participatory Research Program utilizes community-based public health research approaches to diseases and health conditions having an environmentally related etiology. NIEHS supported projects in this program are intended to stimulate further advances in the design and implementation of prevention and intervention methods that are appropriately applied to environmental health; accumulate and evaluate data, make assignments of environmental etiologies of diseases more plausible; and develop, implement, and evaluate community-based exposure assessment protocols.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a severe and complex autoimmune disorder that can attack an organ or organ system, e.g., joints, kidneys, brain, heart and lungs. The etiology of SLE is unknown but gender and ethnicity are known risk factors. SLE has been anecdotally linked to SLE clusters in various environmentally overburdened regions around the nation with exposures to: certain pharmacological agents; toxic organic solvents; and pesticides. The CBPR program supports studies that allow communities to be engaged in active research partnerships with scientific investigators to conduct exposure assessments that will provide additional data linking specific chemical exposures with SLE and other autoimmune disorders. This session will focus on how these efforts and future research may provide linkage data for chemical exposures and SLE.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. The participant will be able to list gender and ethnic risks associated with systemic lupus erethryametosus (SLE), as well as symptoms of this complex autoimmune disorder.
• 2. The participant will be able to discuss anecdotal evidence linking SLE incidence in environmentally overburdened communities with specific chemical exposures.
• 3. The participant will be able to recognize the utility of community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches in the conduct of lupus screening, genetic screening, exposure assessments and etiological studies.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Lupus

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.