Biology of
Natural
Systems
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Center for the Biology of Natural Systems |
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CURRENT PROJECTS
Supporting Agency: Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) (formerly OCAW); subcontract from Department of Energy
This is the third year of the implementation phase of this project, wherein former and current workers at three DOE gaseous diffusion plants are being screened for diseases related to their work at the plants. In the current year we have screened more than 2,350 workers. The use of a mobile helical low-dose CAT scan to screen for lung cancer in workers in the three states went into effect in November, and to date we have screened more than 1,350 workers.
Supporting Agency: Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) (formerly OCAW); subcontract from Department of Energy
This is the second year of the implementation phase of this project, wherein former and current workers at INEEL are being screened for diseases related to their work at the plant. In the current year we have screened more than 600 workers.
Supporting Agency: New York Community Trust
The project’s goal is to ascertain, by actual measurements of environmental samples, the degree to which PCBs emitted by the Hudson River have contaminated New York City watersheds. Measurements have been made on samples of tree bark, which is known to accumulate PCB in proportion to its concentration in the air and to retain it over extended periods. These data indicate that the amount of PCB taken up by the bark declines with increasing distance from the Hudson River. If these preliminary data are confirmed by the more detailed measurements that we plan in the second project year, it will be substantial evidence that the PCB in the watershed originates from the river.
Supporting Agency: Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; subcontract from US EPA and NIEHS
This is a continuation of the project begun in 1998, wherein questionnaires are administered in the community, dust samples are collected, and results from the questionnaires and dust samples entered into the database for analysis of the data. Feasible methods of integrated pest management are being developed.
Supporting Agencies: The Philanthropic Collaborative, Inc., Rockefeller Family, Genetically Modified Food Collaboration
This project is for the initial phase of a new program to provide the general public with a critical understanding of the claims that are used to justify the widespread application of genetic engineering to food crops. We will evaluate the validity of the biotechnology industry’s claims that the genetic modification of food crops with DNA genes from unrelated species is “specific, precise and predictable.”
Supporting Agency: New York State Legislature
This project, with expected start date of June 1, 2001, will involve design and operation of a mobile unit that will perform comprehensive air pollution monitoring in diverse neighborhoods in New York City, where we will characterize time and spatial variation in air pollutants that are relevant to human respiratory diseases such as asthma and emphysema.
RECENT PROJECTS 1992-2000
Ordered Chronologically
Supporting Agency: North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NACEC)
Recent studies have detected increased levels of dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants in the native peoples of the polar region of North America. These pollutants enter the food chain through deposition and subsequent uptake after being carried hundreds or even thousands of miles by prevailing winds. The project will use the computer model previously developed to track airborne pollutants to determine both deposition and source apportionment of dioxin so that the identified sources can be addressed by the appropriate regulatory agencies to tailor reduction plans commensurate with the source's level of impact.
Supporting Agency: Paper, Allied-Industrial Chemical & Energy Workers International Union (formerly OCAW)
A one-year needs assessment study to evaluate whether a medical monitoring and risk communication program for former workers at the INEEL was previously conducted. The findings of the study supported a targeted medical surveillance program, based on the evidence that large numbers of workers had significant exposures to detrimental agents, and suffer excess rates of selected diseases. After participation in the proposed screening program, former DOE workers will have increased real knowledge about their personal health status, what is known about their risks, and how they can promote their own health.
Supporting Agency: Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union
A one-year needs assessment study to evaluate whether a medical monitoring and risk communication program for former workers at three DOE gaseous diffusion plants was previously conducted. The findings of the study supported a targeted medical surveillance program, based on the evidence that large numbers of workers had significant exposures to detrimental agents, and suffer excess rates of selected diseases. After participation in the proposed screening program, former DOE workers will have increased real knowledge about their personal health status, what is known about their risks, and how they can promote their own health.
Supporting Agency: Public Welfare Foundation
The project is intended to meet the need for information in support of grassroots environmental organizations' efforts to reduce and eliminate the environmental and health hazards that are generated by toxic emissions from industrial facilities on the Mexican-United States border. For this purpose, information will be developed that links exposure to the toxic pollutants with the specific sources that generate them — such as individual industrial plants, incinerators, or toxic dumps — so that remedial action can be effectively directed to those sources chiefly responsible for the hazards.
Supporting Agency: Turner Foundation
The project will evaluate the potential impact of a group of herbicides, sulfonylureas, on forest decline. A computer model will trace airborne sulfonylurea from its sites of agricultural application to forest areas and compare the amounts deposited on sites affected by forest decline and on unaffected sites. Maps will depict the geographic distribution of deposited sulfonylurea in relation to areas of forest decline and other ecological effects.
Supporting Agency: New York Community Trust
The project will evaluate the fallout of airborne toxic pollutants on the New York City watershed system — the processes that expose the system to airborne atrazine (a herbicide used in U.S. agriculture that is linked to the occurrence of birth defects); and the exposure of the system to airborne polychlorbiphenyls (PCBs) originating in the Hudson River. The deposition of airborne atrazine will be evaluated by means of a computer model that estimates the amounts, generated in each U.S. county and Canadian zones, that, becoming airborne, are deposited on the NYC watersheds and reservoirs. The deposition of PCBs will be evaluated by developing a similar model to estimate the amounts volatilized from successive sections of the Hudson River that are deposited on the system. The resulting information will demonstrate the importance of action to prevent these toxic hazards at their sources.
Supporting Agency: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union
Nuclear reactor testing and fuel reprocessing activities undertaken at the Idaho Falls Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEL) exposed large numbers of workers to potentially hazardous levels of radiation and toxic chemicals. A needs assessment for a medical surveillance program for former workers at INEL will include collection and evaluation of existing exposure and medical data, completion of a mail questionnaire survey of former workers, conduct of focus group sessions for former workers, and completion of an inventory on health care providers and community resources. A plan to conduct Phase II of the program, implementation of a medical screening and risk notification program, will then be devised.
Supporting Agency: New York Community Trust
The project will help educate New York City residents and City officials about the environmental and economic advantages of implementing a system of intensive recycling. Such a system would target all the recyclable components of the trash stream (about 90% of the total) for collection and, by processing this material for reuse in recycling-based local enterprises, contribute significantly to economic development and job creation. We propose to analyze the recent history of the City's trash disposal efforts and prepare an account in a form that will be readily accessible to the general public.
Supporting Agency: Turner Foundation
The project is designed to reduce the paper industry's consumption of virgin timber by helping communities to sharply increase their collection of waste paper and to encourage the construction of new recycled pulp and paper mills. This will be done by providing grassroots environmental and community groups with a service that offers up-to-date information about the technical feasibility and economic advantages of such an integrated, intensive paper recycling system.
Supporting Agency: W. Alton Jones Foundation
For the purpose of evaluating the effects of long-range air transport on exposure to endocrine-disrupting pesticides, a computer model will be modified to track the movement of selected agricultural pesticides from their numerous sources to distant environmental receptors that mediate exposure of the general public, children in particular. The resulting data will generate maps depicting the degree to which the various sources contribute to the amounts of pesticides deposited on the receptors and the potential pesticide concentrations in drinking water, food crops and milk produced in localities throughout the U.S. and southern Canada.
Supporting Agency: International Joint Commission; U.S. EPA; U.S. NOAA
The project provided a preliminary analysis of the potential or demonstrated capacity for long-range atmospheric transport of specific persistent toxic substances, and a detailed review of the general capabilities of U.S. and Canadian emission inventories and their specific abilities to quantify emissions of these selected specific substances.
Supporting Agency: NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection
This project was designed to provide residents of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg community with information about the safe alternatives to hazardous household products such as pesticides and cleaning products. Such information is provided in several ways: student-led surveys to characterize and evaluate the local usage of toxic chemicals in the home; education and outreach to consumers purchasing household products in stores; education and outreach to local community groups.
Supporting Agency: The Joyce Foundation
The project is based on our successful experience in developing a computer program that can be used to rank the sources that emit dioxin into the air regarding their relative contribution to the amount of dioxin deposited in any selected area of the United States or Canada. The objective of the project is to develop a plan of action to sharply reduce and eventually eliminate the entry of dioxin into the nation's milk supply in economically constructive ways. Our specific aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of such action in the state of Wisconsin.
Supporting Agency: NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection
As part of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Environmental Benefits Program, CBNS is working with the local community and NYC DEP to establish a Watchperson Project. The project will collect and disseminate information about environmental problems in the Greenpoint/ Williamsburg community, sponsor public education activities, monitor the delivery of environmental protection services by City, State and Federal agencies, and perform other services that can assist community members to improve and protect the local environment.
Supporting Agencies: The Pew Charitable Trusts; New York Community Trust; Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; Turner Foundation
The project will assemble and analyze the data needed to design an integrated intensive recycling-based trash management system for New York City. The system will be optimized with respect to: potential recycling rate, appropriate processing facilities, balance between the supply of recyclable materials and their actual use in manufacturing, cost-effectiveness, environmental acceptability, and favorable impact on the City's economy. To enhance the practical applicability of the system, means of facilitating its implementation, both in New York City and nationally, will be developed.
Supporting Agency: City University of New York Workforce Development Initiative
This project is designed to help meet a major need of the City's workforce --beyond education and training --namely, jobs. It is intended to show how manufacturing enterprises based on recyclable materials recovered from the City's huge stream of trash can begin to reverse the impact of the 30-year decline in manufacturing, creating new jobs and adding significantly to the level of economic activity.
Supporting Agency: Council of Great Lakes Governors
This project is designed to assess, for the Council of Great Lakes Governors, the impact of their joint procurement program for recycled products on the relevant markets. The purpose of the program is to encourage the development of active markets in products that are manufactured from materials recovered from community recycling programs.
Supporting Agency: The Joyce Foundation
This project is designed to determine how the entry of a group of unintentionally generated toxic organo-chlorine chemicals (dioxins, furans, and hexachlorobenzene) into the Great Lakes can be greatly reduced and eventually eliminated by converting the source activities in ways that minimize the negative impact on the region's economy or, ideally, enhance it.
Supporting Agency: N.Y.C. Dept. of Sanitation
This project's goal was to coordinate the outreach and education efforts for New York City's Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program.
Supporting Agencies: Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation; Surdna Foundation
This project was designed to explore ways of improving the cost-effectiveness of City expenditures that relate to environmental and energy issues. For this purpose, we carried out environmental audits of selected expenditures in the New York City budget. The audits analyzed the City's budgeted expenses and revenues that relate to environmental issues such as energy conservation, trash disposal, sewage and water treatment, and transportation. The audits were designed to identify budgeted expenditures that, if supplanted by more environmentally sound alternatives, would not only lead to environmental improvement but reduce costs as well.
Supporting Agency: The Pew Charitable Trusts; New York Community Trust; Hunt Alternatives Fund; J.P. Morgan Charitable Trust
Based on a previous grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, CBNS has collaborated with the N.Y. City Department of Sanitation (DOS) in an intensive recycling pilot test, conducted in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Between January 1991 and March 1992, the recycling rate has doubled through the inclusion of additional materials, including food waste, in the City's household separation program and an intensified outreach program. In 1992-1993 CBNS collaborated with DOS in an expanded outreach program to further increase the recycling rate in the Park Slope test zone and to establish the zone as a demonstration of methods for improving recycling performance. Another collaborative project established a model intensive recycling program in Starrett at Spring Creek, a privately owned, government-subsidized housing complex with over 20,000 residents in Brooklyn. The project also includes analyses of the efficiency and cost of the recycling program. A third part of the program is designed to find ways of improving recycling performance in low-income, high-density New York City neighborhoods, in which most of the residents are people of color. At the present time such neighborhoods have rates of recycling that are very much lower than the city average. In cooperation with an active community group, West Harlem Environmental Action, we plan to develop a community-based campaign in that neighborhood to improve recycling participation as a model for similar activities in other low-income, high-density neighborhoods.
Supporting Agencies: North Shore Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program; Public Welfare Foundation
This project follows up on our earlier work that identified opportunities for government purchase programs that can open markets for environmentally sound production technologies. It is designed to take advantage of these opportunities by demonstrating how such purchase programs can contribute to both environmental improvement and economic development, especially in low-income communities. The project involves the preparation of written materials and workshops on this subject for a group of grassroots environmental organizations: National Toxics Campaign, Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, Greenpeace, U.S. PIRG, and Clean Water Action.
Supporting Agency: N.Y. City Dept. of Sanitation
Local Law 19, which established the New York City recycling program, calls for the creation of a Solid Waste Advisory Board in each of the City's five boroughs. The Dept. of Sanitation provides funds for the appointment of a Technical Consultant to assist each Board in its consideration of the City's solid waste management plan. CBNS won the competition for the Technical Consultant to the Bronx Board. Since July 1990 we have provided the Board with a series of reports that analyze the design and operation of the City recycling program and of the plans made to improve it.
End of Current and Recent Projects at CBNS (1992-Present)
Last Updated January 2001
The CBNS Program
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CBNS
Queens College
City University of New York (CUNY)
Flushing, New York 11367-0904
718 670-4180 / 670-4100
WHPP at CBNS 1-888-241-1199
fax 718 670-4189
cbns@cbns.qc.edu
CBNS http://www.cbns.qc.edu/
WHPP http://www.pace-workerhealth.org/