Our general goal is to assess and understand the risk to human health from toxic substances in the environment. We approach this goal from the perspective of an interdisciplinary team that integrates exposure and disease in relation to metals - including lead, vanadium and arsenic. In addition, we are using the model established in the evaluation of metals to evaluate exposure and health outcomes in relation to polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs). The focus on metals related to work currently underway in our department, an the extension to PCBs recognizes the concern relating to a Superfund site in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Project by Ford is a non-biomedical project that evaluates ecologic aspects of metals and PCBs in water, soil and other matrices in the New Bedford environment. The other projects integrate non-biomedical measures of exposure with biomedical measures of disease. Projects by Ryan, Kelsey, and Ha relate to evaluation of lead in the environment - how it is distributed, how it leads to human exposure, how it is related to genetic susceptibility, and how it relates to biologic outcomes in mothers, infants, adolescents, and adults. Projects by Christian and Godleski deal with exposure to vanadium at both the cellular and human level; injury is being evaluated at the pulmonary level as well as in other tissues. The Project by Ford is parallel to the first project that non-biomedical and biomedical aspects of PCBs are being evaluated in New Bedford adolescents, mothers and infants. Finally, the aim of Project by Hunter is to evaluate exposure to arsenic, genetic susceptibility, and disease outcome in a manner parallel to our evaluation of the effects of lead.
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