Partnerships: Achieving Common Goals

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Partnerships Achieving Common Goals

• Mark Maddaloni DrPH, DABT
• Research Translation Workshop
• Febuary 11, 2009

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WTC Response
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Response to 9/11

• Access to lower Manhattan restricted to
  emergency response personnel
• In addition, there is limited electricity or
  phone service
• Financial District is shut down
• Thousands of residents in the area surrounding
  the WTC complex are evacuated

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WTC Response

• Partnerships among Governmental Agencies were
  formed in a hurry (EPA, ATSDR,OSHA, FEMA,
  NYSDOH/DEC, NYCDOH/DEP)
• Daily 3 pm conference call on data reporting and
  interpretation
• Health advisories
• Consensus on shrinking the exclusion zone

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WTC Response

• NIEHS grants to academia to fund research on
  health effects, exposure assessment, and
  community outreach initiatives
• EPA assisted NYCDOE with data interpretation for
  area schools
• Consultations with the private sector
• Reviewed sampling data from NYSE

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Synthetic Turf Fields
February 9, 2009 At Citys Synthetic Fields, High
Lead Levels Fuel Debate By CARA
BUCKLEY Synthetic sports fields have become
battlegrounds, with New York Citys parks and
health departments on one side and some elected
officials and activists on the other. One side
says the turf is safe the other says it harbors
dangerous levels of lead and possibly other
toxins.
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Synthetic Turf Fields

• Sentinel case synthetic field near Superfund
  site in Newark, NJ
• EPA convened a meeting (August, 2008)
• NYC (DOH Parks Dept)
• States (NY, NJ CT)
• Other Feds (CDC, ATSDR, CPSC, HUD)
• Brainstormed COCs and exposure pathways for
  synthetic turf and infill material
• Leveraging of resources

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Synthetic Turf Fields

• NJDEP partnered with Rutgers to perform exposure
  assessments on the fields
• Looking for fields with high Pb and crumb tire
  infill
• NVD fit the bill
• Facilitated use of field for Rutgers study

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Hg Fish Tissue Study

• NYC HANES
• Blood Hg 2X national (NHANES) average
• Asian population 2X city-wide average
• NYCDOH briefed EPA (R II)
• HD message Eat Fish, Choose Wisely
• Proposed joint study
• Citywide sampling of retail markets with
  over-sampling of Asian markets
• Bifurcated studies
• NYCDOH sampled Asian markets, EPA city-wide
• Shared staff, SAPs, QAPs

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Tilapia
NY market photos
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EPA Hg in Fish Study

• Fulton Fish Market (NYC) - Largest wholesale
  market in the US
• 20 most commonly consumed species
• gt 1,000 specimens
• Hg and subset of 5 species analyzed for PCBs
• DNA sequencing on all samples

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Elements of Productive Partnerships

• Networking facilitates the formation of
  partnerships
• Partners share a common interest
• Implicit in the term partner is a presumption
  of equality
• Partnerships are good, however