Ringing In the New Year

2019 was a great year! We accomplished so many milestones with our study including our 10 year anniversary, the passing of a new bill to lower arsenic in NH public drinking water, a feature in Dartmouth Medicine Magazine, and an interview on CBS! We also had the opportunity to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in-person with our study participants in August at our Montshire Museum. Looking ahead, we hope to ring in the New Year with a resolution: to use our platform within the Children's Environmental Health Research network to address the issue of climate change. We are happy to announce our support of ISCHE (the International Society for Children's Health and the Environment).

Children are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change because their bodies are rapidly developing. Children also have faster heart rates and higher breathing rates than adults, and absorb more pollution due to their body size . The Lancet journal recently reported that failing to limit emissions will lead to health problems caused by infectious diseases, worsening air pollution, rising temperatures, and malnutrition.

“With every degree of warming, a child born today faces a future where their health and well-being will be increasingly impacted by the realities and dangers of a warmer world.” - Dr. Renee N. Salas, a clinical instructor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School

In the coming months we will be highlighting some positive changes we can all make to address the mounting concerns of climate change. Following the mission of ISCHE, we hope to protect children and future generations from harmful exposures through the research we produce, the policies we impact, and the services we provide.

Our recent contribution in providing research to back NH's decision to lower the acceptable amount of arsenic in public drinking water is one way we've influenced the policies in our state. Later this month we will be publishing our annual newsletter for participants in our study, which will highlight this and other exciting news from this year, including our recent feature in Dartmouth Medicine Magazine.

With so many accomplishments in 2019, we can't wait to see the possibilities that 2020 will bring us!

APHA 2019

Each year, the American Public Health Association hosts a 5-day long meeting for public health professionals to gather and present their work. APHA brings together people and organizations who make a difference from the global level to the local level. This year, Dr. Carolyn Murray attended and presented in a session dedicated to the topic of children's health and translating environmental health sciences for diverse audiences. Dr. Murray explained that early epidemiological research on the health effects of arsenic exposure was derived from studies conducted on populations in Bangladesh and Taiwan. These early studies led the EPA to reduce the permissible amount of arsenic in public drinking water in the US in 2006. Despite this, over 40 million people in the US rely on private wells as their primary water source. In northern New England, this presented a significant public health issue because arsenic is naturally occurring contaminate in this area of the country. Nearly 50% of the population in northern New England relies on private, unregulated wells for drinking water. Concurrently, food sources including apple and rice based products have been identified as being sources of arsenic exposure in pregnancy and early childhood. During pregnancy and early childhood, there is increased vulnerability to adverse health effects because these are periods are rapid growth and development.

Over the years we have enrolled over 800 families in our New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study. Our study seeks to understand the potential health impacts of arsenic exposure at all levels and a growing ambition among our group of scientists is to better communicate our findings. Dr. Murray leads the Community Outreach and Translation core of our study and has been developing methods to improve our communications strategies. Our APHA presentation focused on our communications with key stakeholders, including study participants, private well owners, state legislators, clinicians, and public health partners . This year, New Hampshire lawmakers made the landmark decision to lower the permissible arsenic levels in public drinking water systems from 10 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. Our research informed this decision, however, we still advocate the need for frequent and consistent private well-water because a huge population of NH relies on these systems to receive their water.

Dr. Carolyn Murray Presenting at APHA 2019 in Philadelphia, PA

Right to Left: Annemarie Charlesworth (UCSF), Brenda Koester (University of Illinois Urbana), Liam O'Fallon, Dr. Carolyn Murray, Haguerenesh Woldeyohannes (Emory)

October 2019 Children's Environmental Health Month

Each October, we celebrate Children's Environmental Health Month to raise awareness and incite action regarding the importance of safe and healthy environments for all children. The Children's Environmental Health Network (CEHC) established CEH Day in 2016 to be observed on the second Thursday of every October.

CEH Day occurs on the second Thursday of October every year

The National Environmental Health Association released an article this month that highlighted a focus group that our researchers met with. The group mainly consisted of mothers who live in rural areas. Our findings from the focus group indicated that rural mothers were largely unaware of the potential arsenic contaminants in their drinking water systems and would have tested for arsenic had they known this information sooner. The feedback provided from rural mothers in this focus group highlight a bigger issue, that concerning the need for better public outreach strategies and more frequent communication. In taking part in Children's Environmental Health Month, we have been active on all of our social media platforms in the hopes to address this issue.

Our 2018 Poster for CEH Day

Our research was also indirectly featured on CNN this month, in an article about baby foods that tested for toxic metal contaminants including arsenic. Though we were not mentioned directly in the article, a lot of our research served as the basis for the article. The article received a lot of attention on Twitter and when it went viral in some twitter circles, we received a mention from a researcher in our field. The researcher was responding to a comment made by a twitter user who wrote in response to seeing the article "I’ve never heard of the org that did this study. Although it’s not that much of a stretch. What I want to know is how these levels (if reliable) compare to the greater food supply".

We responded directly to the twitter user and posted some informative links to pieces we have written and co-authored on the subject. The twitter user thanked us for providing the links and we gained a new follower. Their initial skepticism on the credibility of the CNN article again highlights the need for better outreach strategies to communicate findings in our field of research. Part of our goal for the upcoming year, is to continue to raise awareness about our environmental health impacts that have been discovered through our research.

This year The Environmental Protection Agency released a helpful tip calendar to follow for the entire month!