Residents living in communities affected by pollution and hazardous waste have been expressing concern regarding the impact of pollution on their families’ health for over twenty-five years. Among the first to be recognized were mothers, such as Lois Gibbs of Love Canal, NY. Individually or in loosely organized groups they sought technical and scientific expertise to supplement their personal experience of living with a threat from toxic hazards. Community Outreach Cores are an acknowledgement that SBRP programs, although engaged in basic research, have an additional responsibility to inform and involve stakeholders and interested community members beyond the accepted obligation to share knowledge and research findings.
The Boston University SBRP Outreach Core formally began in 2000. The project and its community partners have undertaken many different activities over the years. Highlights include:
* In November 2001, the Outreach Core convened a group to identify and develop educational materials for community organizations and neighborhood groups desiring a health study to address environmental and health problems where they live. In 2002 members of the group collaborated to receive an additional NIEHS grant, Community-Based Environmental Health Research: Finding Meaning. The community health studies guide will be available on the BUSBRP site.
* BU SBRP Investigators and staff have participated over the years in educational programs with the Boston Area Health Education Center (BAHEC), an after-school and summer program for minority students in the Boston public schools. For two consecutive years we developed an environmental health scenario for nearly 100 students. Topics have included West Nile Virus and dioxin-contaminated chicken. Investigators and staff played different roles in the scenarios and, using information obtained from their “interviews” and current data from the CDC, students debated the issues.
* Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility has been conducting daylong training conferences for health professionals, addressing the role that environmental chemicals including metals, solvents, pesticides, and other substances play in neurodevelopmental disorders. The training is based on the peer-reviewed report In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development. A successful training held at Boston Medical Center featured SBRP investigators.
* The Outreach Core co-sponsored, with GBPSR, a media training for community members, health care providers and environmental health researchers, at which several SBRP investigators presented. The Core also hosted a meeting to further investigator-community exchange between SBRP investigators and Outreach partners. This conversation led to ongoing SBRP investigator contributions of articles on their Superfund research to the GBPSR newsletter (see Articles & Factsheets).
* Drs. Sherr and Aschengrau spent an evening with concerned community members in a session titled, “Science for Environmental Health Protection: A Scientist-Activist Dialog.” The two SBRP investigators presented “Toxicology 101” and “Epidemiology 101." Leading questions were identified prior to the evening as a context for the evening’s discussion: How can science inform efforts to protect public health? When is there enough evidence, and what type of evidence, to be the basis of action (i.e., policy directives, clean-up, intervention)? How do you communicate, as scientists, to the public? On more than half of the evaluations, participants chose “I loved it,” as their descriptor of the evening’s format.
* Toxics Action Center’s Annual Conference regularly features presentations by BU SBRP investigators on topics such as the Superfund program, toxicology, risk assessment, community health studies, and academic/community partnerships.
* Project researchers have given numerous talks at different conferences and forums. Topics addressed by SBRP investigators have included environmental management in the workplace, dioxin sensitivity, PCE-contaminated water on Cape Cod, the Boston water supply, New Bedford Harbor Killifish, fish adapting to a toxic environment, and cancer clusters. Venues have included an environmental science class at Roxbury Community College, EPA Region 1, WCAI (90.1 FM), an NPR station serving Cape Cod and the Islands, CBS 880's Osgood File, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, NPR's Living on Earth, The Society for Risk Analysis, The American Communications Foundation, and Green Cape (a citizens’ group on Cape Cod).
* SBRP researchers are committed to assisting community groups. At a meeting of the New Bedford School Committee, Dr. Heiger-Bernays explained the potential health effects associated with exposure to arsenic at levels found in the soil of a sports field in the city. Her participation in this project was requested by Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, a community partner that collaborates closely with BU SBRP through the Community Outreach Core.
