Over 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed when the Houston area experienced over 50 inches of rain and record-breaking catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Importantly, Superfund sites and chemical/petroleum facilities potentially experienced chemical releases. Individuals and communities with environmental health concerns reached out to us for assistance. To respond, we formed a multi-institutional team with expertise relevant to NIEHS disaster research response (DR2) goals: environmental chemistry, exposures expertise and public outreach from Oregon State University (OSU) the lead institution on this R21; environmental health, epidemiology, microbiome and clinical expertise from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM); and exposure science, environmental epidemiology, public health, community outreach and education from UTHealth School of Public Health (UT-SPH). We traveled to Texas and recruited and enrolled two communities and trained BCM and (UT-SPH) about wristbands and the technology. In the following days, enrollment efforts led by BCM coupled microbiome, questionnaire and wristbands, over 150 wristbands were confirmed distributed from three communities and flooded BCM employees within the first 30 days of the Hurricane with the joint enrollment. Enrollment was still on-going at the time of the OSU submission, there are indications that all 400 wristbands taken to Houston may be deployed in the initial exposure window. Participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive concerning both our efforts in the community and the wristband technology. We will determine chemical exposures variations from the wristband sampler with extent of home flooding, area-level environmental exposures and participation actively in cleanup. We collect repeat wristband measures at 6- and 12-months and examine the reductive influence of cleanup and time have on chemical exposures and we will explore if the measures are a stronger or better predictor of health outcomes. This study will generate a 1.2 million chemical data points that can be used to assess Hurricane exposures and inform about responding to future disasters. ! !
Despite the importance of chemical exposure effect on human health, there is little information about the frequency and magnitude of personal exposures to many chemicals during disasters. This research will take advantage of a time sensitive, limited window, to obtain chemical exposures measured with silicone wristband samplers. The study is part of a synergistic collaborative effort where 150 Houston flood affected participants have already worn a wristband for a week and microbiome bio-specimens have been collected, along with questionnaires. We will determine chemical exposures variations with extent of home flooding and proximity to point sources. We collect repeat wristband measures at 6 and 12-months and examine the moderating influence of cleanup and time on chemical exposures and we will explore if the measures are a stronger or better predictor of health outcomes. This study will generate a 1.2 million chemical data points that can be used to assess Hurricane exposures and inform about responding to future disasters. !
