CHEC's Awards & Honors
2009 Awards
GASP Environmental Hero Award
September 18, 2009
This year the Group Against Smog & Pollution (GASP) celebrates their 40th year of working to clean up the air & improve the environment in southwestern Pennsylvania by recognizing 40 “Environmental Heroes” for the good work they have done for the environment in the greater Pittsburgh area. The director of CHEC, Conrad Dan Volz, DrPH, MPH, was chosen from a pool of nominees by a panel of judges. The judges strove to identify individuals from an array of backgrounds who have worked to improve our environment.
The Environmental Heroes were recognized at GASP's 40th Anniversary celebration on Friday, October 23, 2009, from 6 to 9 PM at the Union Project, 801 N. Negley Avenue in Highland Park (Pgh 15206). Who else was honored? (PDF)
CHEC Awarded Grant for Program Evaluation of Childhood Environmental Asthma Control Project
September 1, 2009
The Center for Healthy Environments and Communities has been awarded a $30,000 grant from Healthy Home Resources (HHR) of Pittsburgh. HHR provides assessment and remediation services to remove asthma triggers from the homes of children, living in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area, diagnosed with asthma and is expanding its services as a result of being the recipient of a stimulus grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Learn more about environmental asthma»
The HHR AT HOMe Program is designed to identify and remediate a variety of exposures that can trigger asthma attacks including; dust mite and cockroach infestation; rat and mouse droppings and hair/skin scale; cat and dog allergens; mold; pollen; and dust. The six-month program includes five in-home visits, where Healthy Home Resources monitors allergen trigger levels, provides personalized education to the child with asthma and his/her family, and provides the family with supplies and services valued at over $1,000 which can include a HEPA vacuum cleaner, HEPA air purifier, cleaning supplies, allergen bed covers, and professional services such as pest management and air duct and carpet cleaning. This program is currently available to those families with children with asthma between the ages of 4-17 living in certified eligible areas. For more information on the HHR AT HOMe program and to see if your child qualifies for the program call them at 412.965.8119 or email them at info@healthyhomeresources.org.
Under the terms of the grant CHEC will provide environmental program evaluation (PDF) to insure that the AT HOMe program is having a significant impact on important childhood asthma health endpoints through quarterly and final data assessments and reports. The asthma health endoints to be evaluated include reducing emergency use of rescue inhalers, symptom and lost school days, and emergency room visits as well as increasing the knowledge, attidudes and beliefs (KAB's) of parents regarding thier ability to care for their asthmatic child. Important public health behavior change models suggest that increasing parental KAB's will lead to positive behavior change and better coping skills in parents.
The Principal Investigator for the project is Conrad (Dan) Volz DrPH, MPH. He will be assisted in data aquisition and analysis by Mr. Charles Christen MEd, LPC, DrPH cand., CHEC Director of Operations and Mr. Drew Michanowicz, MPH. First quarterly evaluation results for this new project are expected to be posted to the CHEC website in November of 2009. Evaluations of concluded AT HOMe projects by CHEC show that the program has had a statisticlly significant effect on lowering rescue medication usage and the number of symptom days experienced by participants and in raising the KAB of caretakers. There is also evidence of persistence of effect of these measures to 6-month post-intervention follow-up. The HHR AT HOME program has also been successful at raising the consciousness of the region regarding environmental causes of asthma and has become an important and well-known community resource (see Final HUD Evaluation Report, 2007, The Healthy Home Resources AT HOME Environmental Asthma Intervention). For information regarding the programs past KAB impact on selected important subgroups of parents, such as those that smoke, have asthma themselves or are under 30 years of age please read:
Learn more» Assessing Effectiveness of Educational Interventions on Subpopulations of Primary Caretakers from Pittsburgh Environmental Asthma Study Based on KAB Survey Scores, by Suzanne Mamrose-Hunt, MPH — Thesis (PDF) | Poster (PDF)
Heinz Endowments Renews Funding for CHEC
August 25, 2009
To expand environmental public health efforts at the University Of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public (GSPH), the Heinz Endowments has awarded $250,000 to the school’s Center for Healthy Environments & Communities (CHEC). The grant will help support the mission of the CHEC, which is to improve environmental health in Western Pennsylvania through the merging of community concerns with; ecological research targeting assessment of exposure to environmental contaminants; assessment of human health risks to these exposures; environmental monitoring; & the modeling of contaminant exposures in order to visually describe & predict their movement through environmental media (air, water, groundwater) to both human populations & ecological receptors.
The Center was founded with initial funding by the Heinz Endowments in 2004, & has successfully completed two major projects on the rivers of Pittsburgh, analyzing fish in these rivers for bioaccumulation of heavy metals, toxic elements & endocrine disrupting chemicals (PDF) (EDC’s), with an emphasis on those EDC’s that are estrogen receptor agonists. Fish are “the canaries in the coal mine” for human exposure & give important information on the sources of water pollution from both air pollution deposition & industrial & municipal wastewater effluent discharges. The renewed funding will allow the CHEC to focus on key goals developed from its previous work. These goals are:
- Modeling local deposition of particulates & other criteria pollutants from coal fired power plants (CFPP), assessment of accompanying health risks posed to human populations throughout Southwestern PA, & investigations of potential correlations of modeled CFPP particulate deposition with heavy metal & toxic element bioaccumulation patterns in fish using geostatistical methodologies.
- A geographic assessment of coal combustion waste (PDF) (CCW) & flyash pile placement & determination of heavy metals & toxic elements in groundwater potentially leached from these sites. The initial phase of this work will be an assessment of groundwater levels of these contaminants at the Little Blue CCW Impoundment, which has no liner, near Shippingsport PA, from PA DEP records. From this assessment a sampling strategy will be established to determine concentrations of these contaminants in drinking water wells of residents living near the impoundment.
- Determine the levels of specific estrogen mimicking chemicals - called xenoestrogens - in local rivers, fish & selected water distribution systems & assess the level of risk posed to humans & aquatic organisms.
- Perform an environmental health threat analysis for the region by reviewing available air & water contaminant databases, benchmarking to other metropolitan areas, & convening a series of focus group meetings with area governmental, institutional, foundation & environmental & community groups.
“One of the things we strive to do within the center is to understand exposure to contaminants in the environment & assess the risk to individuals & communities by engaging them in the process of research consequently empowering them to develop their own action plans for healthy living,” said Conrad D. Volz, DrPH, MPH, Principal Investigator for & Director of CHEC & Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh GSPH. “We are extremely grateful to the Heinz Endowments for their continued & sustained support of this mission.”
According to Dr. Volz, CHEC employs a community-based participatory research model based on an equal partnership between traditionally trained experts & members of the community. “We believe that it is vital to involve community members in research projects so that they have a stake in the health & well-being of their own communities,” said Dr. Volz.
Other CHEC faculty & staff are Ravi Sharma, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral & Community Health Sciences, GSPH, & Charles Christian, MEd, DrPH Cand., CHEC Director of Operations, Andrew Michanowicz, MPH, Research Assistant & GIS Specialist, Samantha Malone, MPH, Research Assistant & Communications Specialist, & Kyle Ferrar, Laura Hyler, Ryan Buttons, Jason Mayfield, & Shannon Kearney, Graduate Student Assistants. For more information on CHEC, visit www.chec.pitt.edu.
The Heinz Endowment supports efforts to make Southwestern PA a premier place to live & work, a center of learning & educational excellence, & a home to diversity & inclusion. Committed to helping its region to thrive as a whole community- economically, ecologically, educationally & culturally-the foundation works within PA & elsewhere in the nation to develop solutions to challenges that are national & even international in scope. One of the largest & most innovative independent philanthropic foundations in the country, the Endowments awarded more than $75 million in grants in 2008.
James L. Craig Award for Excellence in Teaching
April 25, 2009
CHEC is pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Dan Volz, DrPH, MPH, Director of CHEC has been awarded the James L. Craig Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Graduate School of Public Health. The Craig Award was established through the generosity of GSPH alumnus James Craig, MD, MPH (’63), to recognize GSPH faculty who have excelled in teaching & mentoring of students.
Craig awardees are nominated annually by GSPH students & selected by a committee of GSPH students & past Craig awardees. The Craig awardee receives a plaque, & his or her department receives $5,000, which the awardees can use for teaching-related activities.
2008 Awards
Heinz Endowments Funds Center for Healthy Environments & Communities at GSPH
September 29, 2008 — Pitt Chronicle
In an effort to expand environmental public health efforts in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), the Heinz Endowments has awarded $200,000 to the school’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC). The grant will help support the Allegheny River Stewardship Project – a community-based environmental health project exploring water contamination in the Allegheny River, one of CHEC’s flagship programs. Read article»
