Community Outreach Core
The Community Outreach Core (COC) will work with the Research
Translation Core (RTC), with our Advisory Boards in East Chicago,
Indiana and Columbus Junction, Iowa and with school principals in Chicago
to address their environmental concerns through measurements of airborne
PCBs in their communities, integration of these activities with ongoing
educational programs, and dissemination of the findings to the communities
at large. The Community Advisory Board in Indiana has for several years
felt that PCS contamination from industrial sources in its community is
a potential health problem. Projects 4 and 6 are outgrowths of these concerns.
The detailed exposure measurements in families, homes, schools and around
the proposed storage site for the dredging of the Indiana Harbor directly
address these issues.
Although PCB contamination is of less concern to the communities in Columbus
Junction and Chicago, both these groups have a long history of working
with project investigators on asthma related projects and are enthusiastic
about extending their involvement to examination of airborne PCBs. Measurements
in these communities will build upon well developed existing infrastructures,
utilizing the resources of the schools and mobile vans in Chicago that
regularly visit 43 schools in the city. During the implementation phase
of the project we will hire community residents to assist in data collection
and educational programs, which will be integrated into existing activities
at local schools and community agencies.
Core Leader: Victoria W. Persky, The University of Illinois at
Chicago
Dr. Persky also has extensive expertise in the health effects
of PCB exposure. She was the PI of a series of studies examining the effects
of occupational exposures at a capacitor manufacturing plant and is working
with Henry Anderson on a series of studies examining the hormonal effects
of PCB exposure in Great Lakes fish eaters (currently funded from EPA
grant #RD-83025401).
Finally, Dr. Persky is a Co-Investigator on Susan Schantz's NIEHS Children's
Center, where she is responsible for the community intervention program
in the Hmong and Laos communities in upstate Wisconsin. As part of that
program she worked with the local staff and Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) in the production of two videos, culturally sensitive
educational materials, and educational games focused on ways of reducing
risks from ingestion of fish contaminated with mercury and PCBs in the
local rivers.
Co-Core Leader: David Osterberg, The University of Iowa
Mr. Osterberg is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational
and Environmental Health with a secondary appointment in the Department
of Geography at The University of Iowa. He was a six-term member of the
Iowa House of Representatives from 1983 to 1994, chairing both the Agriculture
Committee and the Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, and a
candidate for the US Senate in 1998. He served as special assistant to
the Director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources on global climate
change and renewable energy (1999-2000) and then created the Iowa Policy
Project (IPP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization, that produces
reports on a variety of issues facing Iowa policymakers.
Mr. Osterberg directs the Community Outreach and Education Program for
the Environmental Health Sciences
Research Center at the University of Iowa. In that role, he provides
leadership on statewide environmental health outreach and education. He
most recently led the risk communication team on a study of water quality
in small Iowa towns with no centralized water system. He directed communications
and follow-up with local and state officials, the departments of Natural
Resources and Public Health, local media and environmental organizations
in several small communities including Buckeye, Iowa, where 10 of 10 wells
sampled recorded high levels of arsenic. In this project he will assume
primary responsibility for activities at the Iowa site.
Specific Aims:
Aim 1: To address community concerns about the effects of dredging in
the area of East Chicago, Indiana, near two area public schools.
Aim 2: To relate these concerns to community and personal exposure to
atmospheric PCBs over a four year period.
Aim 3: To develop and implement an outreach educational program in collaboration
with schools in Chicago and with our partners in East Chicago, Indiana,
and Columbus Junction, Iowa.
Preliminary Work:
Activities in Chicago will center around 43 schools currently receiving
asthma care from vans operated by
Mobile C.A.R.E Foundation. Dr. Persky and Ms Amy Miller of Mobile
C.A.R.E have discussed the project with several principals of Chicago
schools currently being served by the asthma vans.
Dr. Persky and Mr. Osterberg, in conjunction with the PI's of Projects
4 and 6, have also worked closely with the isbrp Community Advisory Boards
in East Chicago and Columbus Junction to assess their concerns and develop
a proposal responsive to their needs.
The Advisory Boards will meet regularly throughout the project, assist
in organizing related activities, serve as liaisons with the communities
at large, and work with the investigators on dissemination of project
findings.
