Assistant Professor of Public Health Receives $800K EPA Grant
Lorena Estrada-Mart铆nez and Team to Study Environmental Health Risks in Vieques
Lorena Estrada-Mart铆nez, an assistant professor of environment and public health in the , recently received an $800,000 three-year grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a study called 鈥淐ommunity Driven Assessment of Environmental Health Risks in Vieques, Puerto Rico.鈥�
This study arose from the EPA鈥檚 request for applications called 鈥�.鈥� The request specifically wanted a group that would work with the community to study the contamination of 鈥渢he soil, seas, plant, animal and human population of Vieques鈥� due to the 60-plus years of U.S. military occupation and exercises that gun fire, bombing, artillery testing, and chemical and biological weapons and potentially left behind materials like lithium, perchlorate, TNT, napalm, and depleted uranium.
鈥淭he situation in Vieques is an environmental and epidemiological puzzle,鈥� said Estrada-Mart铆nez. 鈥淎ssessments of disease morbidity and mortality clearly point to elevated disease risks as compared to that on Puerto Rico's main island, including higher incidences of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, and neurological diseases. We believe that over 60 years of bombings and military exercises on the island has a lot to do with that.鈥�
Her study will use , a partnership between researchers and the community that ensures everyone is equally involved in sharing knowledge and making decisions so as to better the community overall, to determine where Viequenses spend their time in order to see how exposure to contaminants occurs. It will also develop methods by which the community collects information pertinent to them and works together to solve potential problems, and employ technology that uses plants to clean contaminated soil, air, and water and teach Viequenses how to use them.
鈥淲e believe that we will find differences in multiple indicators of exposure to contaminants between the people that developed serious disease and those who did not,鈥� said Estrada-Mart铆nez. 鈥淲e hope to build sustainable capacity for the people of Vieques to conduct their own assessments and to have a stronger role in protecting their health and community.鈥�
Each of the five principal investigators has a distinct area of focus in Vieques:
- Lorna Rivera, co-PI and director of the Mauricio Gast贸n Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, will lead community engagement activities.
- Estrada-Mart铆nez (PI) will be in charge of Phase II. A: Human Health Assessment.
- Helen Poynton, co-PI and associate professor of ecotoxicology in the SFE, will be responsible for managing quality assurance as well as Phase II.B: Ecological Risk Assessment.
- Robert Chen, co-PI, interim dean of the SFE and professor of organic geochemistry, will handle Phase III: Contaminant Assessment.
- Ad谩n Col贸n-Carmona, co-PI and professor of plant biology in the Department of Biology, will be responsible for Phase IV: Remediation.
Their work will take them all over the island and into the surrounding sea, as the researchers will take cues from the community rather than specific geographical areas. The team has already started working on the organizational aspects of their project virtually due to COVID-19, and they want to start hosting virtual open community meetings this summer.
鈥淚t's certainly an honor for me to work with Viequenses in this way and help provide more information on the relationship between 60-plus years of military exercises and poor health outcomes,鈥� Estrada-Mart铆nez said. 鈥淚t brings me back to the reasons I chose to study public health in the first place.鈥�