47 Results Found

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund program was established to identify, assess and clean up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites to protect human health and the environment. Community involvement is an important par...

Residents at one of the nation’s largest and longest-operating Superfund sites (Butte, Montana) have expressed environmental health risk perceptions that often diverge from those of EPA and other official stakeholders responsible for the invest...

Inequities in pollution-attributable health disparities are similar in most urban areas throughout the United States, and appear to encompass racial and socio-demographic differences, thereby suggesting increased health risks for those living in thes...

Objective: To test the hypothesis that cadmium (Cd) exposure is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials and Methods: A two-phase health screening (physical examination and laboratory tests) was conducted in a lead smelter community...

The North Railroad Avenue Plume, discovered in 1989, contained chlorinated solvent groundwater plumes extending over 23.5 hectares (58 acres) and three hydrostratigraphic units. The source contaminant, tetrachloroethene, stemmed from release at a dry...

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program (SRP) funds university-based, solution-oriented research to understand how hazardous substances contribute to disease and how to prevent exposures to these hazardous s...

Approximately 2000 official and potential Superfund sites are located within 25 miles of the East or Gulf coasts, many of which will be at risk of flooding as sea levels rise. More than 60 million people across the United States live within 3 miles o...

Soil contamination by cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) at the Tar Creek superfund site in northeast Oklahoma, United States, remains a threat to the environment and local ecosystem. Phytoremediation with industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) and...

The articles in this special issue on New Directions in Environmental Communication in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health present new research and perspectives on engaging communities impacted by Superfund sites&mda...

Airborne fine and ultrafine particulate matter (PM) are often generated through widely-used thermal processes such as the combustion of fuels or the thermal decomposition of waste. Residents near Superfund sites are exposed to PM through the inhalati...

Environmental justice is a rising social movement throughout the world. Research is beginning to define the movement and address the disparities that exist among communities exposed to pollution. North Birmingham, a community made up of six neighborh...

Pueblo, Colorado has a long history of smelting activities, and recent studies raised concerns about lead exposure. This study tested 240 children in Pueblo for blood lead levels (BLLs) and found a significant association between distance from old sm...

Copper mining in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the mid-19th century generated millions of tons of mining waste, called stamp sand, which was deposited into various offshoots of Lake Superior. The toxic stamp sand converted the area into barren,...

The Donna Reservoir and Canal System (Donna Lake) in Texas has been a persistent source of environmental contamination for over a century, exposing surrounding communities to dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Originally built for...

Social science-environmental health (SS-EH) research takes many structural forms and contributes to a wide variety of topical areas. In this article we discuss the general nature of SS-EH contributions and offer a new typology of SS-EH practice that...

The Buffalo Lupus Project was a community-university partnership that investigated associations between exposure to a local waste site and high rates of lupus and other autoimmune diseases. The partnership’s major accomplishment was successful advoca...

Living near landfills is a known health hazard prompting recognition of environmental injustice. The study aim was to compare self-reported symptoms of ill health among residents of four neighborhoods, living in haphazardly constructed settlements su...

While the cause of preterm birth (PTB) (i.e., delivery before 37 weeks of gestation) is likely multifactorial, ambient exposure to environmental chemicals has been postulated to play a role in its etiology. Our prior studies of exposure to polycyclic...

The Yurok Tribe partnered with the University of California Davis (UC Davis) Superfund Research Program to identify and address contaminants in the Klamath watershed that may be impairing human and ecosystem health. We draw on a community-based parti...

In this special issue of IJERPH, we feature studies conducted by research translation and community engagement teams that are funded through the Superfund Research Program in the United States. These and other teams funded by this program demonstrate...

Effective risk communication strategies are critical to reducing lead exposure in mining-impacted communities. Understanding the strength of the associations between perceived risk and individuals’ behavioral intentions to protect their health...

Community engagement is a vital aspect of addressing environmental contamination and remediation. In the United States, the Superfund Research Program (SRP) forms groups of academic researchers from the social and physical sciences into Community Eng...

Arsenic is a naturally occurring toxic metalloid that has many human health implications. Its strong prevalence in the bedrock and thus much of the well water in New England puts many private well owners at risk. It is also found in food products, pa...

Dendrochemistry was applied to a small town, Taylorville, Illinois, which has a superfund site and apparently more cases of cancer than expected based on background rates. As an ecologic study, dendrochemistry is not intended to unequivocally associa...

Environmental exposure to organic endocrine disrupting chemicals, including dioxins, dibenzofurans, bisphenol A (BPA), and phthalates has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We conducted a pilo...

Hurricane Harvey was associated with flood-related damage to chemical plants and oil refineries, and the flooding of hazardous waste sites, including 13 Superfund sites. As clean-up efforts began, concerns were raised regarding the human health impac...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund—the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) database—has collected and built an open-source database based on nearly 2000 US soil reme...

Thyroid cancer rates have risen globally over the past four decades, with Puerto Rico experiencing a particularly pronounced increase. This may be linked to higher metal exposure, as some metals are endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. Currently, ce...

Passive sampling device (PSD) extracts paired with developmental toxicity assays in Danio Rerio (zebrafish) are excellent sensors for whole mixture toxicity associated with the bioavailable non-polar organics at environmental sites. We expand this co...

Abandoned mining-related sites present threats to human health and the environment, while also being potentially valuable places for redevelopment. This paper examines whether successful sustainable redevelopment is more likely in metropolitan areas,...

High levels of heavy metal contamination in soil present substantial threats to human health and the environment, leading to severe health problems such as neurotoxicity, cancer, kidney issues, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and reduced life...

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of various machine learning (ML) algorithms in predicting late-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnoses against the backdrop of socio-economic and regional healthcare disparities. Methods: An innovative theoretical fram...

One of the most significant challenges in human health risk assessment is to evaluate hazards from exposure to environmental chemical mixtures. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of ubiquitous contaminants typically found as mixtures...

Soil lead contamination is an environmental health risk that greatly affects children in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Southside Chattanooga Lead Superfund Site was added to the National Priorities List in late 2018 by the Environmental Protection Agen...

This correlational study associated data on children enrolled in individualized educational plans in their K-12 schools (IEP) and an algorithm-calculated score of neurotoxins at contaminated sites located in each school district. The study also mappe...

There is growing recognition that build-to-rent (BTR), a novel institutional asset class, could improve rental affordability and housing choice in Australia. Despite favourable market conditions and increasing demand, Australia’s BTR sector rem...

Inhibition, one of the building blocks of executive function, is the ability to focus one’s attention despite interference from external stimuli. It undergoes substantial development during adolescence and may be susceptible to adverse impacts of pre...

In response to increasing threats from sea-level rise and storm surge, the City of Charleston, South Carolina, and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) propose constructing a seawall around the Charleston peninsula. The proposed seawall will termin...

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to smoothly adapt to changing circumstances, is a skill that is vital to higher-level executive functions such as problem-solving, planning, and reasoning. As it undergoes substantial development during adolescence,...

Phytoremediation has been reported as a more energy-efficient, and therefore cost-effective, method of environmental restoration compared to traditional remediation methods for heavy-metal-contaminated soils. Biochar has been shown to have variable e...

Although humans are continuously exposed to complex chemical mixtures in the environment, it has been extremely challenging to investigate the resulting cumulative risks and impacts. Recent studies proposed the use of “new approach methods,&rdq...

Asbestos has been confirmed as a major pollutant in asbestos-mining areas that are located in western China. In general, asbestos-fibre dust will is released into the environment due to the effect of intensive industrial activities and improper envir...

Background: We examined the effects of lead on kidney function in occupationally and environmentally exposed adults from a Dallas lead smelter community that was the site of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund clean-up. All subjects we...

The PROTECT research Center funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Research Program was launched in 2010 to explore the impact of exposure to pollutants on the high rate of premature births in...

Humans are routinely exposed to complex mixtures such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) rather than to single compounds, as are often assessed for hazards. Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) metabolize PAHs, and multiple PAHs found in mixtures c...

This Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) systematic review synthesized effects of background levels of per- and polyfluorylalkyl substance (PFAS) levels on reproductive health outcomes in the general public: fe...

Understanding the temporal effects of organic matter input and water influx on metal lability and translocation is critical to evaluate the success of the phytostabilization of metalliferous mine tailings. Trends of metal lability, e.g., V, Cr, Mn, C...