Recently the University of Washington Superfund Research Program helped develop an eLearning Module for health professionals titled “Pediatric Lead Exposure: Diagnosis, Management and Prevention” which can be taken for continuing education credit. The module was created in partnership with the Northwest Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units and the Panhandle Health District to raise awareness about risks associated with lead exposure and to promote lead medical surveillance in the Bunker Hill Superfund Site area, within Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene River Basin.
Center Updates
UW SRP researchers Dr. Rebecca Neumann, Dr. Jim Gawel and post-doctoral researcher Dr. Pamela Barrett have been sampling lakes impacted by the ASRCO copper smelter which operated for nearly 100 years in Tacoma, Washington. Today, 31 years after the smelter closed, arsenic emitted by the smelter is still found in soils and lake sediments in the Puget Sound lowlands of western Washington State.
UW SRP Research Translation and Community Engagement Core (RTC/CEC) staff are participating in discussions at Region 10 EPA focused on improving fish consumption advisories during cleanup activities on the Lower Duwamish River Waterway Superfund site. State health agency fish consumption advisories (posted signs in multiple languages) are routinely used in an attempt to reduce human exposure to contaminants in waterbodies throughout the US.
UW SRP Research Translation and Community Engagement Cores (RTC/CEC) recently welcomed two new cohorts of middle school students enrolled in the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps (DVYC) to the UW campus. The DVYC program is overseen by the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group (DRCC/TAG), which is the official EPA advisory group for cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) Superfund site.
UW SRP trainees have been very busy this year mentoring undergraduates, receiving independent research grants, and publishing high impact papers that got picked up by the main media, even The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!
The University of Washington Superfund Research Program (UW SRP) received funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for our interdisciplinary program titled Effects-Related Biomarkers of Environmental Neurotoxic Exposures. Principal investigator, Dr. Evan Gallagher, oversees the four research projects and five support cores.
Hao Wang received his Master’s Degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the School of Medicine at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. There his research explored the mechanisms and signal pathways associated with one kind of toxin from algae, Microcystin.
The Duwamish Valley Youth Corps (DVYC) is a program shepherded by the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (Technical Advisory Group for the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site). The DVYC engages youth in education and community service, offering them paid training and meaningful work experience.
This month marks a decade since a cadre of community groups met in Seattle in 2005 to hold its first regional summit planting the seeds of the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition. The initial meeting was led by members of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition and other groups that included environmental and social justice organizations.
The University of Washington Superfund Research Program (UW SRP) will initiate 3 new research projects next year if our competing renewal is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The overall focus of the program will continue to be investigating early biomarkers for neurotoxic compounds such as manganese, copper and pesticides.
n June 2013, President Obama announced his Climate Action Plan. A critical element of the Plan is to assist states, Tribes, and local governments to prepare for negative climate-related consequences that may lie ahead. In May of this year, the Third National Climate Assessment was released, including a chapter on the Pacific Northwest. One of the key messages from the Assessment was the need for federal, state, Tribal, and local communities to develop adaptive responses to observed and projected impacts associated with climate change, which will differ across the nation including the Pacific Northwest.
The SHAWL Society (Sovereignty, Health, Air, Water, Land) was created in 1994 to address environmental and human health effects associated with uranium mining that began on the Spokane Tribal Reservation in the 1950’s. The Midnite Mine site was listed as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2000. The Dawn Mining Company, LLC, and Newmont USA Limited are the responsible parties for the site and will complete the cleanup work, overseen by the Spokane Tribe and the EPA.