Special note: This was the second call in a two-part series co-sponsored by CHE and the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) featuring EPA funded researchers and their community partners discussing cumulative impacts research projects on a community level. The first call was on June 9, 2011.
Multiple aspects of the environment in which we live, learn, work and play can impact our health. However, the general practice of governmental agencies and policymakers responsible for protecting public health and the environment is to focus on one factor at a time, and more specifically, one chemical contaminant at a time. For many years, the environmental justice movement and local communities have advocated for the consideration of multiple exposures and cumulative impacts in environmental policy and regulatory decisions. The emerging science, in fact, affirms what these advocates have been calling for—explicitly, the need to take into account interacting concerns such as socioeconomic, nutritional and psychosocial factors along with multiple toxic exposures, if we are to improve public health. CHE and SEHN hosted this call to feature researchers, recently funded by the US EPA, who are working with poor and underserved communities to determine how multiple stressors such as hazardous chemicals, poor nutrition, and lower socioeconomic status undermine their health as well as what interventions could be implemented to create healthier, more resilient communities.
Featured Speakers
Deborah Corey-Slechta, PhD, Professor of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and community partner Katrina Korfmacher, PhD, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry
Stephen Linder, PhD, EdD, MBA, Professor and Associate Director, Institute for Health Policy, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Madeleine Scammell, DSc, Boston University School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health and community partner Rosa Maria Olortegui, Star Program Coordinator at The Chelsea Collaborative
Devon Payne-Sturges, DrPH, US EPA National Center for Environmental Research
The call was moderated by Elise Miller, MEd, CHE Director.