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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Julia Green Brody, PhD¹, Ruthann Rudel, MS¹, Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH², Phil Brown, PhD³, Aj Napolis⁴, Rebecca Gasior Altman, MA³, Cheryl Osimo, BS¹, Carla Perez, BA⁴, Liesel Seryak, BS¹, and Allan Just, ScB¹. (1) Silent Spring Institute, 29 Crafts Street, Newton, MA 02458, 617.332.4288, brody@silentspring.org, (2) Center for Environmental Studies & Department of Community Health, School of Medicine, Brown University, 135 Angell Street, Brown University, Box 1943, Providence, RI 02912, (3) Department of Sociology, Brown University, Maxcy Hall, Box 1916, Providence, RI 02912, (4) Communities for a Better Environment, 1440 Broadway, Suite 701, Oakland, CA 94612

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) from sources ranging from consumer products to industrial processes and air pollution are a central concern for breast cancer activists, because many EDCs mimic estrogen, a known breast cancer risk factor. EDCs are emerging, too, as an environmental justice concern because of disproportionate breast cancer mortality among African-American and poor women, rising breast cancer incidence in immigrant groups, and possible effects on asthma, fetal development, premature puberty, and neurological health. Through a collaboration of Silent Spring Institute, Communities for a Better Environment, and Brown University, we developed a project that links breast cancer and environmental justice activism in a program to assess EDCs in household air and dust on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and in Richmond, California. Assessing indoor exposure is an important addition to outdoor monitoring, because people spend many hours at home and contaminants often do not degrade indoors and may accumulate at higher concentrations than outdoors. In California, we are developing methods to assess the impact of outdoor sources, particularly transportation facilities and an oil refinery, on indoor pollutant levels. In Massachusetts, we are developing and pilot testing exposure reduction strategies. Household testing results are shared both as aggregate information presented through scientific journal articles, community meetings, news media, and other channels, and as individual report-back to study participants. Individual report-back is an important area of innovation that supports individual and community empowerment.

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