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Past PEPH Newsletters

PEPH Newsletter - December 2013
PEPH Newsletter
Volume 4, Issue 12: December 2013www.niehs.nih.gov/PEPH
This Month
PEPH at APHA
Tox Town Curriculum
Clean Air Projects
Web-Based Environmental Health Atlas
ACAT Environmental Health and Justice Coordinator Job Opening
EPA/NIEHS Webinar on Obesity and the Environment
PEPH Environmental Health Chat Podcast Series
PEPH Webinar Series
Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Funding Opportunity
Upcoming PEPH-Related Meetings
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Funding Opportunities
Visit the PEPH Funding Opportunity Announcements page for more PEPH-related funding opportunities.
Research on the Health Determinants and Consequences of Violence and its Prevention, Particularly Firearm Violence (R01, R03, R21). This FOA spans across the missions of several NIH Institutes and Centers. The National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities identifies priority topics that may be of particular interest to the PEPH community. Deadlines: February 5, 2014 (R01); February 16, 2014 (R03 and R21).
Interventions for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Native American Populations (R01). Deadlines: Letter of Intent April 15, 2014; Application May 15, 2014.
Behavioral and Social Science Research on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities (R01 and R21). Deadlines: February 5, 2014 (R01); February 16, 2014 (R21).
Health Promotion Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Males (R01 and R21). Deadline: February 5, 2014 (R01); February 16, 2014 (R21).
Request for Health Impact Assessment Applications. The National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from the CDC's Designing and Building Healthy Places Initiative, will provide local health departments with technical assistance and funding to complete a health impact assessment. See the RFA for more details, applications due December 9, 2013, 8:00 p.m. ET.
PEPH Community Well Represented at APHA
Photo of Antonio Tovar and Jennifer Runkle
Antonio Tovar (left) from the Farmworker Association of Florida and Jennifer Runkle from Emory University presented a web-based training tool for female farmworkers at an APHA poster session.
The PEPH community had a strong presence at the annual American Public Health Association (APHA) meeting held last month in Boston, Massachusetts. Our colleagues shared many successful and innovative environmental health research projects; see the PEPH at APHA listing for a full view of the range and number of the projects presented this year. While all the highlights from APHA are too numerous to
share, take a moment to read about a research partnership between the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, University of Florida, and Farmworker Association of Florida that is working to characterize and prevent occupational exposures among Latino farmworkers. The group presented several studies funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) through the Research to Action program. The PI of the project, Linda McCauley, R.N., Ph.D., stated that "The APHA annual meeting was an outstanding venue for PEPH investigators to share results of their work and our community members were excited to be included and raise awareness about these important farmworker health and safety issues."
One study presented by the group explored how female nursery and fernery workers in Florida perceive their risk for occupational and environmental hazards, particularly those related to health and pregnancy. The researchers used information from focus groups, interviews, biomarkers, and two community advisory boards to develop and then deliver a comprehensive training curriculum targeted at female farmworkers of reproductive age. Study results showed that most women worked in the fields while they were pregnant and that their perception of risk did not match levels of contamination. The research team went on to translate these results into a culturally acceptable web-based training tool with information on pregnancy health, pesticide safety, heat stress, ergonomic risk factors, and prevention measures. The online format of the training is a cost-effective and accessible way to advance health promotion and protective behaviors during pregnancy for female farmworkers.
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Tox Town Curriculum
The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Tox Town Curriculum Based Units are a great way for teachers to get middle school students interested in environmental health. The lessons expand on Tox Town, NLM's visually engaging website where students can explore the connection between health and the environment, by including hands-on experiments and communication and social action activities. The curriculum, "Discovering the Connection: Your Environment, Your Health," was designed to help teachers supplement or start an afterschool science club. Topics include water quality, air quality, and chemicals in the home. The lessons also emphasize the importance of science to informed citizenship.
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Clean Air Projects
The Clean Air Projects website is another great one stop shop for K-12 educational resources about the link between air quality and human health. Created by the National Jewish Health Children's Environmental Health Center, the website offers lesson plan packets that use an investigative framework and hands on activities to help students understand how air quality is connected to our health, environment, energy consumption, economy, and quality of life.
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Web-Based Environmental Health Atlas
The Canadian Environmental Health Atlas (CEHA) is an interactive website you can use to raise awareness about how environmental influences affect our health. A multidisciplinary team of researchers recently launched the CHEA as a resource that synthesizes Canadian environmental health research across a range of topics and provides a comprehensive view of environmental health in Canada. In addition to case studies, maps, and videos, CHEA also links to relevant publications and recent health topics in the news. NIEHS grantee Bruce Lanphear, M.D., was a contributing epidemiologist on the multidisciplinary team that created the tool.
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ACAT Seeks Environmental Health and Justice Coordinator
The Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) seeks a full-time Environmental Health and Justice Coordinator to facilitate projects. The goal of all of ACAT's projects is to assure justice by advocating for environmental and community health. The coordinator will regularly work and interact with local, state, national, and international policymakers as well as leaders from Alaska tribes, health care professionals, labor unions, faith-based organizations, educators, environmentalists, youth, seniors, and other non-governmental organizations. See the job posting for details.
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EPA/NIEHS Children's Centers Webinar on the Environment and Obesity
The December EPA/NIEHS Children's Centers webinar will focus on obesity and the environment. The webinar will feature presentations by Karen Peterson, Sc.D., from the University of Michigan and Andrew Rundle, Ph.D., from Columbia University. The webinar will be held December 11, 2013 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET. Register online.
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PEPH Environmental Health Chat Podcast Series
Environmental Health Chat Graphic Share your thoughts and ideas! We would like to hear from you and get ideas for 2014 podcasts (podcast@niehs.nih.gov). For the last year, this podcast series has highlighted ways researchers work with community groups to understand and address environmental health issues. Check out past podcasts on the PEPH Environmental Health Chat Web page, or subscribe to the series on iTunes.
Examples of past podcasts:
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PEPH Webinar Series
The PEPH webinar series highlights a range of research from our PEPH community. Tune into the NIEHS YouTube Channel to watch past PEPH webinars, including:
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Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Funding Opportunity
The EPA's Office of Environmental Justice has issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for the 2014 Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program. The EJCPS Program is designed to help eligible non-profit and Native American communities understand and address exposure to multiple environmental hazards at the local level. Applications are due February 18, 2014. Interested applicants are invited to participate in a series of conference calls with EPA to address questions about the EJCPS program and this solicitation. Access the pre-application assistance calls by dialing 1-866-299-3188 and entering the code 202-564-1771 when prompted.
Conference call dates and times:
- Tuesday, December 3, 2013: 1:30-3:00 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, December 11, 2013: 4:00-5:30 p.m. ET
- Thursday, January 9, 2014: 7:00-8:30 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, January 15, 2014 (en Español): 4:00-5:30 p.m. ET
- Saturday, January 25, 2014: 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET
- Wednesday, February 5, 2014: 5:00-6:30 p.m. ET
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Upcoming PEPH-Related Meetings
February 13-15, 2014: "New Partners for Smart Growth Conference" in Denver, Colorado. See a new brochure for conference sessions focused on equitable development and environmental justice. A special half-day Equitable Development Workshop will be held the first day of the conference. Pre-registration and a $25 fee are required to attend the workshop.
March 5-7, 2014: "Association for Community Health Improvement Conference," in Orlando, Florida. The conference theme is: The Critical Role of Community in Moving from Individual to Population Health.
March 20-21, 2014: Join the academic prevention and public health communities at "Teaching Prevention 2014: Convergence of Technology, Innovation & Collaboration," in Washington, DC, to share and learn about the skills, infrastructure, and resources needed to practice and promote preventive health.
March 26-28, 2014: "National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program," in Washington, DC. The program will focus on the needs and challenges of communities, governments, tribes, and other groups with an interest in environmental justice. Register by February 25, 2014.
April 30-May 3, 2014: "Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) Conference," in Chicago, Illinois. The conference theme is "From Rhetoric to Reality: Achieving Authentic, Equitable & Transformative Partnerships." Registration opens December 2013.
May 7-9, 2014: "National Training Conference on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and Environmental Conditions in Communities," in Arlington, Virginia. The conference will include sessions on pollution prevention, environmental justice, and environmental public health, along with TRI and other sources of environmental information. Submit a session or poster abstract by December 13, 2013.
May 27-31, 2014 or June 9-13, 2014: "Summer Institutes on Critical Participatory Action Research," at the City University of New York Graduate Center in New York City. The 5-day trainings introduce the theory, methods, and ethics of critical participatory action research to graduate students, faculty, and members of community-based organizations. Apply by January 6, 2014.
Do you have an announcement to share with the PEPH community? Send us your news for the next issue of the PEPH Newsletter (peph@niehs.nih.gov).
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