Overview of Superfund Basic Research Projects
for Students and Teachers

The following is a list of the research projects that make up our Superfund Basic Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. For each project there is a description of the purpose of the project.

 

Project Title: Controlled Trial in Pregnancy of Dietary Supplements for the Suppression of Bone Resorption and Mobilization of Lead into Plasma

Purpose: Pregnant women are asked to take certain supplements such as vitamins. Researchers take measurements of their blood during pregnancy and of the blood of their babies when they are born. After analyzing the blood, researchers will try to determine if taking certain vitamins helps protect mothers from passing lead to their babies before the babies are born.

We already know that lead is stored in bones and is released or mobilized into blood (plasma) during pregnancy. We now want to know if taking certain supplements will prevent the lead from leaving the mother’s bones and passing to the baby during pregnancy. If lead can be kept in the mother’s bones, it is not harmful to the mother or the baby.

 

Project Title: In Utero Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Pesticides, and Metals in Relation to Cognitive Function in Childhood

Purpose: If pregnant women are exposed to PCBs, pesticides or metals, these chemicals and metals can be passed to the baby during pregnancy. Researchers test the blood of babies when they are born to see if it contains any PCBs, pesticides, or metals.

Researchers test the study Children's behavior and neurologic function as newborns. The babies are re-tested at ages six months and 8-10 years on measures of cognitive function and behavior to see if there is any link between the presence of these chemicals in their blood and poorer cognitive or behavioral development.

 

Project Title: Arsenic and Health in Taiwan and Bangladesh

Purpose: Both Taiwan and Bangladesh are countries known to have areas where the well water for drinking has high amounts of arsenic. This research is designed to help us learn whether drinking water that contains arsenic, even in small amounts, makes a person more likely to have bladder cancer or a form of skin cancer known as non-melanoma skin cancer.

 

Project Title: Molecular Epidemiology of Arsenic and Bladder Cancer

 

Purpose: In this research scientists study the cells of people with and without bladder cancer. They try to determine if the cells of those with bladder cancer behave differently from the cells of those without bladder cancer.

With today’s special instruments, scientists can look for the changes that take place in the cells of people with bladder cancer. Eventually, scientists will be able to tell us exactly how arsenic effects cells and causes bladder cancer.

 

 

Project Title : Improving Ecological Risk Assessment: Development and Application of Methods to Determine the Bioavailability of Contaminants in Aquatic Sediments

Purpose: In this project, researchers take measurements that help them learn how certain contaminants (pollutants) move through water and are taken-up or absorbed by animals and plants that live in the sediment of rivers, lakes, and oceans.

When researchers know more about how contaminants are taken-up, that is, how available they are to animal and plant organisms (the biota), then we can know how risky it is for animals and plants to live where there are contaminants in the water and sediment. This knowledge about risk helps us to know how risky it is for people to live near contaminants (Superfund Sites, for example).

 

Project Title: Assessment of Biological Responses to Organic and Metal Contaminants in New Bedford Harbor: Methods for Monitoring Ecological Health

Purpose: This project has three parts. In the first two parts researchers will determine which Polychlorinated Bipheyls (PCBs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), and metals in water are absorbed by vertebrates and fish and how these living organisms behave when they are exposed to these contaminants. In the third part researchers will try to develop a way to keep track of how much of these contaminants get into vertebrates and fish.

 

Community-Based Prevention and Intervention Research Project

Background: This project is a study that takes places in a community in Oklahoma where the people live near a Superfund Site called Tar Creek. During mining operations that took place years ago, great piles of waste material, called chat piles, were left on the land. The chat piles contain lead and other metals that are harmful to health. Children and adults are exposed to these metals when they ride bikes or walk on the chat piles and when the dust from the piles blows into the air and gets into the soil and homes in this community,

Map of Oklahoma showing the Tar Creek Superfund site.

Click on map for larger view or click on "Tar Creek Superfund site" for a close up of that area.

Purpose: The researchers are studying how the exposure of pregnant mothers to the metals in chat may affect the health and development of their children. This project will also help us learn if harmful health effects are produced in people when their genes interact with the metals from the chat that get into their bodies when they breathe, eat, or drink.