About CHEC
CHEC was founded in 2004 under a grant from the Heinz Endowments at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. Our mission is to improve environmental health in Western Pennsylvania. We take a community-based approach to analyze the social, economic, political, policy, behavioral and geographical variables associated with environmental health issues, as well as the traditional physical-chemical aspects of local environmental health problems. Our aim is to; provide community-based participatory environmental research projects; perform exposure and risk assessment studies; offer access to local environmental health data, and provide opportunities for collaboration, prioritization of environmental problems, and conferencing, and outreach that helps people improve their lives and neighborhoods. The Principal Investigator for and Director of CHEC is Conrad (Dan) Volz, DrPH, MPH.
CHEC's activities include the following:
- Working, collaborating and partnering with local organizations to uncover and solve environmental and ecological health problems.
- Developing a central resource for issue specific environmental health information and data for academic and partnering organization’s researchers.
- Campaigning to increase public awareness of environmental health issues and exposure prevention/avoidance techniques.
- Dialoguing with community members to understand the environmental issues most important to both communities of geography within Southwestern Pennsylvania and communities of interest.
By using a community-derived definition of environmental health, we set the stage for community engagement, which we believe is essential for the success of our work.
In addition to conventional environmental hazards such as air and water pollution by toxic contaminants, the scope of our interest includes the impact on health and well-being of such things as urban sprawl and "bad neighborhoods." In addition, we consider modifiable behavioral risk factors for health, such as home use of pesticides/herbicides, consumer choices of household products, and nutrition, and the physical social, and cultural determinants that influence them. As a starting point, we have chosen to focus our efforts on water management (including water quality, contaminants and quantity, wastewater and sewage, stormwater runoff, flooding and land use policies), and on air, water and fly ash waste contamination of the local environment by coal fired electrical power plants. CHEC will follow the physical and chemical transport of contaminants released from point and non-point water pollution sources and from all wastestreams of coal-fired electrical plants through all environmental media through to each mode of exposure to humans and ecological receptors (fishes, birds, etc.). CHEC will also assess the risk that these exposures present for particular disease endpoints.
Here are some specific sites or topic areas in which we have current or planned activities:
Allegheny River Stewardship Project:
- Engage river community members to become involved in the stewardship of the Allegheny River;
- Understand the concentrations of important contaminants in river water, sediment and fish species;
- To associate contaminant that are bioaccumulated in fish with potential pollution sources;
- Identify human exposures to these contaminants;
- Understand the risks posed by discovered contaminants to human health and the environment;
- Obtain and share data with policymakers;
- To form strategic partnerships with stakeholder groups along the Allegheny River watershed to solve discovered problems.
Workshops to produce shared visions and issue prioritization to assure effective Southwestern Pennsylvania water management in an era of climate change and overuse and misuse of environmental and ecological assets (wetland development, continued development of green space and critical watersheds, etc.).
Projects to; determine the geographical position of waste coal and flyash dumps within Southwestern Pennsylvania relative to susceptible population groups and vital ecological and environmental resources; explore possible connections between coal combustion products and waste with specific human and ecological health outcomes; and determine the regional concentration gradients of heavy metals in both air and water and how this effects neighborhood and community exposure and risk patterns.
Environmental Health Education: physicians, universities, high schools, the public.
Data on regional health and the environment for community groups and researchers.
Developing:
- Building bridges between the study of ecological health (plants and animals) and human environmental and public health. CHEC’s position is that ecological health is a human public health issue.
- Urban green space, community gardens for sustainable living.