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Emory in AlabamaSometimes it's hard to resist crowing about an Emory activity. This is one of those times. Our Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) addresses problems of asthma related to "sick" buildings, lead poisoning, pesticides, mercury, and many others. Some of the most complex arise in communities with widespread hazardous exposures, such as Anniston, Alabama, birthplace of Surgeon General David Satcher. Exposures there include PCBs and mercury from a former Monsanto plant that made PCBs, lead from a large metalworking industry, and chemical warfare agents from a large Army depot. In December, our past year's work in Anniston culminated in a community-wide meeting at which we spearheaded a proposal for a community-based program of early detection and intervention for pediatric developmental and behavioral disorders. As the local newspaper reported the next day, participants at the meeting - the mayor and other elected officials, EPA and health department personnel, local physicians and educators, community activists, business leaders, and others - all enthusiastically supported the initiative. We are moving forward with widespread community support. |
It's hard to imagine a more successful example of a university reaching out to a community, identifying a widely shared goal, building consensus among diverse and sometimes hostile constituencies, providing technical support, and helping the community move toward achieving that goal (not to mention seamless collaboration between our schools of medicine and public health). Moreover, the program will be an unparalleled opportunity for research on the health effects of these environmental exposures. Dr. Leslie Rubin, pediatrics, and Janice Nodvin, our project administrator, deserve tremendous credit for this initiative, but all the team members, including Drs. Gerry Teague and Bob Geller and MD-MPH student Jeremy Hess, made important contributions (starting with a CME series at the Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center almost a year ago). I am enormously proud of our PEHSU team and of Emory for the community outreach and service ethic that this program exemplifies.
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Web version by Jaime Henriquez.