Surendra Sharma, Brown SRP researcher, leads a team working to identify pathways and targets related to adverse effects on pregnancy following maternal PCB exposure. Research Brief 174.

Phil Brown, Brown SRP Community Outreach Leader, helps Rhode Island environmentalists push bill to increase fines for Rhode Island industrial polluters. Full report.

Congratulations to Alison Cohen!
Alison, an undergraduate research trainee with the Community Outreach Core, has received a Fulbright award to do independent research in the European Union next year.  She will be studying REACH, the EU's new and innovative chemicals regulation, and will consider how policy advocates and policymakers use environmental health science to inform their work. Alison was also named to USA Today's 2009 All-USA College Academic Third Team, in recognition of her work in teaching environmental health and environmental justice to middle school students in Rhode Island with the Outreach Core and in San Francisco.  Full report.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Hoover!
Elizabeth, an SBRP graduate trainee working with our Community Outreach team, is a recent awardee in the Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship 2009 dissertation competition. Elizabeth will be using her $21,000 award to finish writing her dissertation about environmental health issues in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne over the next year. Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships.

Canadian Press Association reports in a recent article that Nanotechnology is newsworthy because of its promise, but some researchers point to the potential for its unknown environmental consequences. Agnes Kane, Leader of Project 2, says nanoparticles can be highly reactive and may generate oxidants that cause cellular damage. Full report.

Many women are surprised to learn the extent of personal, in-home contamination caused by exposure to everyday consumer products, according to a team of researchers including Phil Brown, leader of our Community Outreach Core and Brown University sociologist. Full report.

The award highly commends Laura's excellent work in community outreach and environmental justice, a key part of her work with the Brown Superfund Basic Research Program’s Community Outreach Core. Her efforts have included direct support work with community-based organizations that are partnered with the Community Outreach Core, interaction with Superfund scientists to show them the importance of community engagement, and publication in a top-tier environmental health journal, Environmental Science and Technology, of an article describing Brown’s Superfund outreach work. Laura will present her research at the upcoming SBRP Annual Meeting in Pacific Grove, California, December 7-9, 2008.

Congratulations to Robert Hurt and Agnes Kane who have been awarded a three-year grant, titled "Bioavailability, Environmental Transformation, and Detoxification of Core/Shell Nanomaterials." This work will further the understanding of the conditions underwhich internal imbedded toxicants become bioavailable and how to avoid it.

The Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) in Estonia awarded an honorary degree to Eric Suuberg, Leader of our Research Translation Core and Project 7, as part of its 90th anniversary celebration. The honor recognized Suuberg’s achievements in the fields of chemical engineering, fuel science, and environmental technology. The citation made special mention of Suuberg’s “promotion of cultural contacts between Estonia and the United States, in particular scientific contacts between Tallinn University and Brown University.” Full report.

Dr. Agnes Kane of the Brown University SBRP chairs an EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel to review the draft model for performing site-specific risk assessments for inhalation exposure to asbestos. This approach is unique because it includes the different asbestos mineral forms and fiber sizes. The panel, which includes experts from industry, academia, and NIEHS, will provide recommendations for OSWER consideration as they finalize the approach. Dr. Karl Kelsey, Director of CEHT and co-leader of Project 8, is also on this committee.

Robert Hurt and his team characterize for the first time how elemental mercury vapor escapes from broken CFLs and offer a real-world solution for capturing escaping mercury. A review of this work is featured in Environmental Health Perspectives.

DISCOVER MAGAZINE profiles the environmental health work of Phil Brown, the leader of our Community Outreach Core.
Full report.

Professor Robert Hurt, Leader of Project 6, and his team have discovered a material that can be used to absorb mercury from compact fluorescent lamps. The nanomaterial has been used to create a mercury-absorbent container lining for broken CFLs.
Full report and news release

Congratulations to Elizabeth Hoover, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology and a member of Brown’s SBRP Community Outreach team. Liz is among 25 new Switzer Fellows chosen from a record number of applicants from New England and California. The award is in recognition of Liz’s exceptional contribution to our Community Outreach efforts, her active role in the new Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, and her dissertation work on how the Akwesasne Mohawk community on the NY-Canada border experiences health studies and understands the hazards their community faces. We are very proud of her, and wish her the best in finishing up her exciting dissertation.

CHMR Solutions is a student entrepreneurship team mentored by Dr. J.M. Calo, a Brown University SBRP research project leader. CHMR Solutions utilizes a Cyclic Electrowinning/Precipitation (CEP) system to remove heavy metal contamination from Brownfields. The CEP system offers CHMR Solutions a great competitive advantage in the growing market in Brownfield remediation for redevelopment purposes. CHMR Solutions entered their business plan into two competitions, one sponsored by the local student entrepreneurship club at Brown University and the other in the RI Business Plan Competition. In the Brown competition, they finished as first runner-up (winning $3,500) and in the statewide contest they were one of only two runners-up (winning $5000) to help them pursue their idea further.
Brown University posting.

With the help of Phil Brown and the community outreach team, a potential settlement of the most complicated and extensive soil contamination case in Rhode Island is reached. Read the front page article in the Providence Journal.

Elizabeth Hoover, a Brown graduate student in Anthropology, who has been working as a research assistant in our Community Outreach Core since it began, was just selected as an Environmental Leadership Program Fellow. We are so happy for Liz, and so glad to share this good news. The prestigious Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) is a great training ground, resource development network, and community-building milieu for environmental scholars, environmental activists, government staff, and environmental businesspeople. To learn more about ELP please visit their website.

The Brown Alumni Magazine covers our Community Outreach Core's success in initiating legislation to get the nation’s first state program for home equity loans for homeowners unable to get bank loans because of environmental contamination. View the full article.