Mapping Environmental Health
Marie Lynn Miranda Uses Geospatial Technologies to Protect
Our Children p.4
Huneycutt moved about the houses taking readings for lead,
while Whitney and Stiegel took air and dust samples for related
projects on allergens and molds and for pesticides.
Miranda has a distinctive, almost musical laugh. And when
she tells the story of how one project has led to another
and then to another, she can’t help but laugh.
“It is a really expensive and time- consuming undertaking
to get someone to open their house for you and to take environmental
samples. So, when we were fully funded on lead, and we went
to take the samples, we said, ‘Gosh, as long as we are
going to people’s houses to collect lead samples, wouldn’t
it be great if we collected some asthma triggers and allergen
samples to use as pilot data to help us extend this model
in other directions.’”
The pilot funding for the asthma project came from the Wallace
Genetic Foundation, soon to be followed by full funding by
the Department of Housing and Urban Development and from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Wallace Genetic Foundation
also gave seed money for another piggy-backed project focusing
on pesticides.
“When you think of children and environmental health,
lead exposure has a big effect on neurological health, allergens
and asthma triggers have an effect on respiratory health and
the immune system, and pesticide exposure, which is related
to neurological health can also be related to reproductive
health. These are some of the more important exposures for
children,” said Miranda.
The lead project is the most mature. They’ve built
and calibrated the mapping model and are wrapped up the sampling
this summer. Sampling next year will continue with asthma
and allergen triggers, and hopefully, she said, for pesticides,
as they work to adapt the GIS methodologies to work for these
two projects as well.
After Hurricane Floyd stalled over eastern North Carolina
in 1999 and flooded county after county, asthma rates increased
in that part of the state.
“When the floods occurred, I felt a really strong
desire to be a part of an effort to rebuild those communities,
but I don’t know how to build houses, I don’t
know how to lay drainage tile, I’m not a legislator
or a meteorologist.
“But when asthma rates among children in those counties
skyrocketed, I saw a part for this ‘nerdy professor’
to take,” she said.
Already the sampling is showing big differences between the
level of mold and mold species that are found in Durham and
Orange counties and those in Wilson and New Hanover counties.
“Drywall is like mold candy. You had these houses that
got flooded, and the drywall just sucked up the moisture.
Even when you think the drywall is dry, it can harbor mold,”
she said.
Miranda and her team have received additional funding from
the State of North Carolina to develop GIS and environmental
health services in five health departments serving nine North
Carolina counties.
So, it’s an exciting time for Miranda and the team.
Not only does she see her program expanding far beyond her
original dream, she has managed to accomplish what she set
out to do when she started: protect and nurture her children
at home and through her work.
Miranda’s children are very much a part of the Nicholas
School. When her last child, Viviana Joy, was born, she stayed
with her mom in the office and was available for “holding”
every Tuesday and Friday.
“As a school of the environment, we try all the time
to get our students to think about intergenerational issues
whether they are interested in ecology or environmental human
health. So, I think there is something to be said for having
the next generation pitter-pattering around in a school that
places such a big emphasis on problems that play out across
enormous spatial and temporal scales.”
Scottee Cantrell is director of communications
for the Nicholas School
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