About the Children's Environmental Health Initiative

SCEDDBO Investigators Hold Symposium for EPA Scientists -- January 08, 2009

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at Research Triangle Park hosted the faculty and staff of the Southern Center on Environmentally-Driven Disparities in Birth Outcomes (SCEDDBO) on January 8, 2009 for a symposium that provided an overview of SCEDDBO research. SCEDDBO is an interdisciplinary children's health research center with a focus on understanding how biological, physiological, environmental, and social aspects of vulnerability contribute to health disparities. The newest and only Children's Environmental Health Center in the South, SCEDDBO is the first Center fully funded by EPA.

Dr. Marie Lynn Miranda presented an overview of the Center, followed by Dr. Alan Gelfand who described the Bayesian spatial hierarchical modeling and other advanced spatial statistical approaches being developed in Research Project A, "Mapping Disparities in Birth Outcomes". This project aims to explain links between environmental and socioeconomic stressors and birth outcomes as well as health disparities in fetal growth among different ethnic and social groups.

Jeff Davis, SCEDDBO's Outreach Coordinator, presented the Community Assessment Project which describes the built environment in Durham, North Carolina. The Community Assessment project is integral to understanding how the built environment may influence birth outcomes. Dr. Jerry Reiter and Dr. Allison Ashley-Koch described Research Project B, "Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: Studying Racial Disparities in Birth Outcomes", a cohort study of pregnant women in Durham, NC. In this study, birth outcomes are correlated with individual-level measures of environmental, social, and host factors.

Dr. Richard Auten explained Research Project C, "Perinatal Environmental Exposure Disparity and Neonatal Respiratory Health". This project uses an animal model to examine how maternal exposure and postnatal exposure to PM and/or ozone restricts fetal growth or impairs lung development and function in the newborn.

Links to Background Information:
http://es.epa.gov/ncer/childrenscenters/duke.html

CEHI is a research, education, and outreach program committed to fostering environments where all children can prosper.