Superfund Research Program

Community Engagement Core

Project Leader: Shannon Lea Watkins
Co-Investigator: Scott N. Spak
Grant Number: P42ES013661
Funding Period: 2006-2025

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   2019  2014  2009 

Research activities of the Iowa Superfund Research Program include measurement of airborne polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in schools, and approximately 50 homes and their residents in each of the communities of East Chicago, Indiana and Columbus Junction, Iowa. The Community Outreach Core (COC) is receiving input from Community Advisory Boards in both communities. The group in Indiana has for several years felt that PCB contamination from industrial sources and from a potential dredging project present a potential health problem. The Iowa community seems unconcerned about PCBs. Outreach is taking place in these two very different communities. Researchers from the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois at Chicago are engaged in outreach.

Community Outreach during this project year has involved the following activities:

A. East Chicago, Indiana

1. Education programs in schools are a significant part of COC activities. A successful classroom activity has been building PCB plastic models with students. On October 19, 2009 Victoria Persky, Anissa Lambertino and Mary Turyk built models and lectured on PCBs and Lead among environmental health issues at Westside Junior High School for all 7th graders. The next day David Osterberg used a PowerPoint presentation along with student interaction to discuss PCBs and asthma to the same group of students.
2. A field trip for students at Westside Junior High School to facilities at the University of Illinois-Chicago will take place in March 2010.
3. Community Advisory Board meeting on December discussed progress of the study and possible future activities. Six of the nine CAB members attended along with Victoria Persky, Mary Turyk, Anissa Lambertino, David Osterberg, Nancy Morales and Jeanne DeWall.
4. Education programs at the following community events over the summer provided an opportunity to highlight environmental issues in the area by Anissa Lambertino and Araceli Urquizo.

   Elementary-aged children were invited to play fish-related games and make a fish-related craft. Fish and animal stickers and fish-related prizes were given to all children. Fish advisory notifications for Indiana water bodies, written in English and Spanish, were given out as were bookmarks with PCB information. Specific dates and activities are listed below:

   • Saturday June 27th 2009 12:00 pm, Indiana Harbor Yacht Club Open House
   • Saturday July 25th, 2009, Puerto Rican Parade 10:30 am, and celebration Sunday July 26th, 2009.
   • Saturday August 15th 2009, Back to school fair at Holy Trinity School.
   • Saturday and Sunday August 22nd and 23rd,2009 11:30 am, Taste of East Chicago.
5. Ongoing meetings between Victoria Persky with Betty Balanoff, former CAB leader and Bessie Dent, the new leader discussed progress of the study and possible expansion of the board.

B. Columbus Junction, Iowa

1. Education program building PCB plastic models at Columbus Junction Middle School for all 8th graders did not take place in 2009 but will take place during the present school year. In March 2010 David Osterberg will teach this session with the 8th grade. Classes at Columbus Junction school are 50 minutes in length so PowerPoint slides on how to explain differences in asthma incidence and how to investigate PCBs will be included in each of the three classes
2. Field trip for Columbus Junction School 7th grade class to the University of Iowa Superfund animal and chemistry labs on the Oakdale campus. Peter Thorne and six persons from his lab, Craig Just, Hans Lehmler, Larry Robertson and David Osterberg participated in the two and one half hour educational tour. This annual field trip for the school took place on November 17, 2009. During the previous school year both the 7th and 8th grade classes participated in field trips. Teachers at the school prefer that going forward the 7th grade will visit labs each year and COC staff will teach using PCB models in the 8th grade.
3. Meeting of the Columbus Junction Community Advisory Board took place April 20, 2009. The committee is chaired by Superintendent of Schools Rich Bridenstine and was formerly composed primarily of school officials. The board has been expanded with the addition of a public health department nurse, the mayor of the town, the newspaper editor and a community member.
4. Meeting at the Columbus Junction schools with Middle School science teachers Jan Rutt and Diane Olson led to an idea to produce a film of the field trips to the University of Iowa labs. On March 18th, 2009 David Osterberg and a videographer, Sohiel Rezayasdi interviewed students who had participated in the filed trip. The video with film of the students interacting with COC staff and scientists at the university and interviews in their Columbus Junction classroom is now featured on the Iowa Superfund Research Program website and has been used in several community presentations.
5. Commercial Club in Columbus Junction is the main community group in the small town. David Osterberg and the Airborne Exposure to Semi-volatile Organic Pollutants project staff person Barb Mendenhall explained the recruiting for the study in the community and presented the short film of the most recent 7th grade field trip. Rich Bridenstine, the school superintendent was on hand to describe the good cooperation between the schools and the university. During this visit to Columbus Junction Osterberg and Mendenhall met with the local Catholic priest and informed him about the study.

C. Other

COC co-director David Osterberg was present at a meeting on Research Translation and Community Outreach for the several university Superfund programs in Durham NC on July 27-28, 2009. Mr. Osterberg participated in the Superfund annual meeting in New York on November 3-5 and presented in the morning session on November 5th which was reserved for research translation and community outreach activities.

The COC believes that close collaboration of investigators with local schools and community advisory boards is important in guaranteeing the success of all the Superfund program projects and especially the Airborne Exposure to Semi-volatile Organic Pollutants project. The research at these sites is the direct result of local community concerns – as such integration of educational outreach programs with individual needs of the residents is crucial, not just to the implementation of the current project, but also to future extensions of the program.