Joan A. Engelhardt, BSN, RN, MSEd, Family and Community Medicine/South Texas Environmental Education and Research, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, TX 78229-3900, 956-523-7418, engelhardt@uthscsa.edu

The South Texas border is simultaneously one of the nation’s fastest growing and yet one of the poorest regions, with strong language and cultural ties to Mexico. It is one of the best possible backdrops both to research and to learn about environmentally-related diseases. The term “border health” is understood by all who live within the frontera to convey a complex and multifaceted set of health stressors rising up out of disproportionate poverty and disease rates for environmentally related illnesses such as hepatitis, salmonella, dengue fever, asthma, and tuberculosis. The South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) Center is located on the border with Mexico in Laredo, Texas. In addition to the STEER course for health professions students, we undertake grant projects which are designed to benefit the community. Research projects highlighted are 1) a HUD-funded study developing a working model whereby environmental changes made in homes of asthmatic children will be correlated with improved health status outcomes, 2) the EPA-funded project Agua para Beber, in which STEER trained two dozen lay health promoters who taught a water purification and hygiene education program tailored specifically for colonia residents to 500 U.S. and Mexican border families. STEER documented drinking water procurement and storage practices and contamination at these homes which lack the infrastructure for fresh drinking water and wastewater treatment, and 3) an EPA-funded environmental study which examined a pre-school aged population with highest potential for exposure to pesticides in communities in close proximity to cultivated farm fields outside Laredo.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

2. Describe the major environmental health concerns of U.S.-Mexico border residents.
4. Identify appropriate strategies for community-based research with vulnerable Hispanic populations.
6. List the skills and behaviors required to conduct health promotion programs in a culturally sensitive manner.

Keywords: Community Research, Environmental Health

Related Web page: steer.uthscsa.edu

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.