Town Meetings

The NIEHS sponsors Town Meetings in cities throughout the United States on the general theme of environmental impacts on human health. The purpose of the town meetings is to bring together members of the public who are interested in public health and the environment with NIEHS and other federal, state, and local government health officials; environmental health professionals; and disease and environmental advocacy groups. The meetings provide a platform for an open dialogue to establish better coordination among the public and health professionals working on community exposures, industrial exposures, and other environmental issues. These meetings also provide an opportunity to promote local and state media coverage of environmental health issues to broaden public understanding. Many of these town meetings are organized in collaboration with NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Centers and Superfund Centers at universities around the country who carry out cutting edge research to better understand the most pressing and key environmental problems of the nation, and how best to solve them.

Contact

Upcoming Town Meetings are in

• Bay Area, CA (Zero Breast Cancer) (http://www.breastcancerwatch.org/events.html)
  Community Forum
  Breast Cancer and the Environment: From Research to Action with Dr. Linda Birnbaum
  Wednesday, November 18, 2009
• West Harlem, NY (Columbia)

During a visit to Milwaukee's Intermodal Station, Birnbaum talked with community leaders about the city's sustainable transportation initiatives. Shown, left to right, are Mayor Tom Barrett, Peter McAvoy, J.D., and Birnbaum. (Photo courtesy of UWM)

At one stop on the Trolley Tour, Birnbaum, left, talked with Sandra McLellan, Ph.D, who moderated the Town Hall Meeting. In the background is a community garden planted in the shadow of a brownfield — a former paint manufacturing plant — on Milwaukee's near north side. (Photo courtesy of UWM)

The October 1 Town Hall Meeting was a standing-room-only event, as Birnbaum and key staff heard from Milwaukee community members about their environmental health concerns. (Photo courtesy of UWM)

Last Town Meeting

Wisconsin Town Meeting
Environmental Health in Milwaukee
October 1, 2009
Milwaukee, WI

At the Milwaukee Town Meeting, Linda Birnbaum set the stage for a panel discussion by environmental public health specialists and city and regional officials. Birnbaum began her presentation with impressions from the afternoon trolley tour of the city — recounting the neighborhoods, gardens and river valley industrial brownfield sites she saw that day to emphasize the interconnectedness of the environment with public health and quality of life.

In her talk, Birnbaum highlighted "some of the outstanding work that NIEHS is supporting here at UW-Milwaukee," including basic research into the biological mechanisms of toxicity, detection of freshwater viral, bacterial and chemical contaminants, and the innovative outreach initiative, Healthy Latino Families and Schools. She described work at UWM as an example of the productive mix of "'small science' conducted by individual labs" with the work of "'big science' teams, which may be needed to answer some of the most intractable questions."

Moving to the national and international levels, Birnbaum surveyed the Institute's "larger research investment" in environmental health science, especially in research on the long-term health effects of early environmental exposures. She focused on new and renewed efforts to prevent disease through effective translation of research results into public health initiatives for improving children's health and development by preventing and treating chronic diseases.

Birnbaum's closing comments brought her back to the streets and neighborhoods of Milwaukee. "We look forward to supporting and working with scientists, health care providers and community members here in a great city on a great lake," she concluded, "to continue the success of this work, to better understand how the environment affects our health, and to develop effective prevention strategies to protect public health."

In closing, Birnbaum emphasized the pressing need for environmental health research. "You can't change your genes, but you can change your environment," she said. "The question is not, 'Can we afford to do this research?'" she said. "It's, 'Can we afford not to?'"

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One of many high points at the Town Hall Meeting was the student panel discussion. Area middle school students, above, described what they've learned about environmental health through an NIEHS-funded outreach project. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Rodriguez and UMDNJ)

There were few empty chairs at either of the sessions, as students and people from the community turned out to hear experts and leaders in the environmental health sciences. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Rodriguez and UMDNJ)

"We're particularly glad to be back here now to focus our attention on children and environmental health," Birnbaum said. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Rodriguez and UMDNJ)

As they mingled with attendees during the reception, it was evident that Birnbaum, center, and Hoppin, right, were in New Jersey to listen as well as speak. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Rodriguez and UMDNJ)

While the NIEHS representatives were in the area, they visited faculty and staff of the NIEHS Center and, later, the School of Public Health at UDMNJ. Standing, left to right, are Laura Hemminger, Mitchel Rosen, Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, Ph.D., Mark Robson, Ph.D., and Glenn Paulson, Ph.D. Seated, left to right, are Hoppin, NIEHS Associate Director Allen Dearry, Ph.D., Birnbaum and Audrey Gotsch, Dr.PH. (Photo courtesy of Audrey Gotsch and UMDNJ-SPH)

Recent Town Meeting

New Jersey Town Meeting
The Environment and Child Health
June 17, 2009
New Brunswick, N.J.

NIEHS scientists traveled to New Brunswick, N.J., in support of a June 17 Environmental and Child Health Town Meeting that included opening comments by NIEHS and National Toxicology Program (NTP) Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/director/index.cfm) The program was organized by the NIEHS Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease (CEED) (http://tools.niehs.nih.gov/portfolio/sc/detail.cfm?appl_id=7575295), which is housed in the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). The meeting was held at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick.

The event was an opportunity for Birnbaum, a native of New Jersey, to visit the city where NIEHS held its first town hall meeting in 1998. She told her audience at the evening session of the program that NIEHS is proud of its "long history of seeking involvement from a broad array of constituencies, including scientists, health care professionals and communities, in setting its research agenda and in fostering community-university partnerships to implement parts of that agenda."

"As we go forward, we want to make sure we are supporting the most important types of science, from 'small science' conducted by individual labs, which can be nimble and innovative, to 'big science' research teams, which may be needed to answer some of the most intractable questions," Birnbaum explained. "We will need to use a judicious mix of the best individual investigators, as well as the capabilities of research teams, to uncover all the complex ways in which environmental exposures work on biological systems with genetic and other host susceptibility mechanisms to affect health and disease."

An afternoon program of expert speakers opened with a welcome and introduction by UMDNJ Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine Helmut Zarbl, Ph.D. (http://lifesci.rutgers.edu/~molbiosci/faculty/zarbl.html) , who is the principal investigator on the university's NIEHS Center grant. Zarbl was followed by talks by UMDNJ investigators on findings of their NIEHS-funded research. The presenters included Michael Gochfeld, M.D., Ph.D., Jason Richardson, Ph.D., Michael Gallo, Ph.D., and Kathy Black, Ph.D. They spoke on such environmental health topics as heavy metal exposure, neurological disorders linked to pesticides, endocrine disruption and breast cancer and childhood asthma. A poster session and reception followed.

The evening program opened with Birnbaum's comments and a brief panel session of local middle school students involved in the CEED Community Outreach and Education Program, leading into the highlight of the evening — a 90-minute panel session with scientists and environmental justice and public health advocates.

NIEHS Epidemiology Branch Staff Scientist Jane Hoppin, Sc.D. (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/epi/chronic/staff/hoppin/index.cfm), was one of the five members of the evening panel discussion. Hoppin described her research as part of the Agricultural Health Study and how "what we learn from farmers and their families [can be] relevant to the U.S. population as the chemicals used in agriculture are used for residential and public health purposes as well."

Hoppin was joined by two UMDNJ professors — Daniel Wartenberg, Ph.D., and Howard Kipen, M.D., MPH— as well as Elyse Pivnick, vice president of Environmental and Community Health (http://isles.org/main/services/environment/) at the non-profit organization Isles in Trenton, N.J., and Ana Baptista, Ph.D., program manager of the Ironbound Community Corporation (http://www.ironboundcc.org/) in Newark, N.J.

Previous Town Meetings

Your Home, Your Health	15 September 2008	Cincinnati, Ohio	University of Cincinnati
	NIEHS and University of Cincinnati Host Environmental Health Town Hall Meeting The September 15 town hall meeting, "Your Home, Your Health, Your Voice," was about empowerment for individuals dealing with environmental exposures, and it was held appropriately in a monument to empowerment during extreme adversity, the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The meeting was jointly sponsored by NIEHS and the University of Cincinnati (UC) Center for Environmental Genetics (CEG). The event featured talks by experts at UC to help residents understand better the exposures they face each day and to offer practical ideas about how individuals can improve aspects of their health related to those exposures.
	More on Cincinnati Town Meeting (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2008/october/niehsanduniversity.cfm)
Asthma and the Air We Breath	13 July 2007	Charlotte, North Carolina	Friendship Missionary Baptist Church
	Charlotte Town Meeting on Air Quality & Health Disparities: Public Invited to Help Set Research Agenda Friendship Missionary Baptist Church joined with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and American Health Strategies in holding a town meeting in Charlotte to discuss ongoing and new ways to improve air quality among minority populations. Research has consistently shown that African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are more likely to develop chronic respiratory illnesses, including asthma when compared to white Americans. In addition, minorities are more likely to have poor outcomes associated with chronic respiratory illnesses. Differences in exposure to ozone and other pollutants may contribute to the disparities observed in disease prevalence and severity. It is time to clear the air. The Charlotte Town Meeting on Air Quality and Health Disparities was open to the public. NIEHS director, Dr. David Schwartz, was the keynote speaker for the meeting. The NIEHS has a noted tradition of supporting research relevant to understanding health disparities and concerns of disadvantaged communities. Congressional staff, state and local representatives, researchers and leaders in the medical and public health community participated in the community forum.
Environmental & Neurodevelopmental Disorders over the Lifespan	11 September 2005	Durham, North Carolina	International Neurotoxicolgy Conference
	Town Meeting Agenda (http://www.niehs.nih.gov//about/community/docs/nctownmtg0905.pdf)   (176 KB)
Growing Pains: Health & Community Impacts of Goods Movements and the Ports	25-26 February 2005	Long Beach, California	Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (USC & UCLA)
	Meeting Website(http://hydra.usc.edu/scehsc/TownMeeting2005/index.asp)
Impact of Urban Sprawl on Health in the Inner City	16 December 2004	Atlanta, Georgia	Crystal James Associates and Morehouse College
	Morehouse Press Release (http://www.niehs.nih.gov//about/community/docs/morehouse.pdf)   (68 KB)
Environmental Health Concerns in Hawaii	14 February 2004	Honolulu, Hawaii	University of Hawaii and University of Arkansas
	Local Coverage of Meeting(http://starbulletin.com/2004/02/15/news/story8.html)
Health Effects From Particulate Matter	3 June 2003	Children's Memorial Institute for Education & Research, Chicago	American Lung Association of Chicago
Airborne Threats to Human Health: The latest Findings on Fine Particle Pollution - What you and Your Family Need to Know About Air Pollution and How It Affects Your Health	21 April 2003	Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York	American Lung Association of New York State and State University of NY-Upstate Medical
Oceans and Human Health	27-28 February 2003	Maritime and Science Technology High School, Miami	University of Miami's Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center Florida International University and the University of Miami
Voices of Diversity in the Environment and Health	7-8 January 2003	San Antonio Town Meeting	Air Force Institute for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health Risk Analysis, San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, University of Texas Health Science Center, Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation
Voices for a Healthy Community - Breast Cancer and the Environment	7-8 October 2002	Marin County and San Rafael, California	Marin Cancer Watch Organization, NIEHS Berkeley Center, Community Outreach and Education Program and University of California, Berkeley
Children's Environmental Health Public Forum, Paso Del Norte Heavy Metal Exposure	1-2 February 2002	Tomas Rivera Conference Center	University of Texas at El Paso
Voices for Healthy Environments, Healthy Communities, Healthy Jobs	7-8 December 2001	First Church of God, Los Angeles	Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (USC/UCLA)
Public Meeting on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: Airing on the Environmental Health Issues	16 November 2001	University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa	University of Iowa College of Public Health
Neighborhood Environmental Health	19-20 October 2001	Houston, Texas	Baylor College of Medicine
Public Meeting on Chromium VI	14 January 2001	Glendale City Hall, Glendale, California	City of Glendale
Voices for Healthy Environments, Healthy Communities	29-30 September 2000	Mt Zion Baptist Church, Seattle, WA	University of Washington
Health Disparities	9 July 1999	Chicago, Illinois	University of Illinois at Chicago
Health Disparities	26 May 1999	Baltimore, Maryland	Johns Hopkins University
Children's Environmental Health	19 February 1999	Berkeley, California	University of California at Berkeley
Environmental Health in Our Neighborhoods: Speaking Out About Pollution and Health	19-20 January 1999	Cincinnati, Ohio	University of Cincinnati
Air, Soil, and Water Pollution: Environmental Health Implications	17-18 November 1998	Nashville, Tennessee	Vanderbilt University
Urban Environmental Health	17-18 September 1998	Piscataway, NJ	UMDNJ and Rutgers

More on NIEHS Town Meetings (EHP article (http://www.ehponline.org/members/2003/6267/6267.html))

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