Environmental Health Chat NIEHS Partnerships for Environmental Public Health

In this episode, George Bullerjahn, Ph.D., discusses a community science program in which charter boat captains and the U.S. Coast Guard work with researchers to collect water samples from Lake Erie. These samples provide NIEHS-funded researchers the robust data they need to monitor, predict, and mitigate harmful algal blooms.

In this episode, we’ll hear from Rachel Morello-Frosch, Ph.D., who discusses how historical policies have shaped disparities in health and environmental exposures today.

In this episode we’ll hear from Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D., who directs the Women’s Health Awareness program at NIEHS. She discusses women’s health disparities and why it’s important to include women – especially those from understudied, underrepresented, and underreported groups – in biomedical research. Packenham also talks about the program’s community engagement efforts, including the Women’s Health Awareness Conference, an annual event that brings women together to take control of their health and address environmental health challenges in their communities.

In this episode, we’ll hear from Eri Saikawa, Ph.D., from Emory University and Rosario Hernandez, executive director of Historic Westside Gardens. They work with residents living in Atlanta’s Westside community to test their soil for lead and other contaminants and raise awareness of children’s health risks associated with exposure. Results from their urban gardening study led to the removal of lead-contaminated soil in Atlanta neighborhoods.

In this episode, we’ll hear from Jessa Ellenburg, director of educational outreach at 2B Technologies. Ellenburg talks about why it’s important to get students and communities involved in citizen science and shares lessons learned from her more than 10 years in science education and outreach.

In this episode, we talk to NIEHS-funded researcher Shohreh Farzan, Ph.D., and Esther Bejarano, with the community organization Comite Civico del Valle, who have teamed up to address local concerns about the possible health effects of the shrinking Salton Sea. They discuss a community-engaged research project that aims to understand how the rapid drying of the Salton Sea will impact local levels of particulate matter and affect children’s lung health. They also highlight how their community-based approach educates and empowers residents to address local environmental health issues.