# Understanding Risk Gradients from Environment on Native American Child Health Trajectories: Toxicants, Immunomodulation, Metabolic syndromes, & Metals Exposure

> **NIH NIH UH3** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR · 2021 · $4,249,553

## Abstract

Summary
The URGENT Native American ECHO Cohort will build on the active Navajo Birth Cohort Study (NBCS),
extending the follow up period beyond the current 12 month protocol, and adding two additional tribes, the
Cheyenne River and Oglala Sioux Tribes, to assess the impact of environmental exposures to abandoned
mine waste on birth outcomes and child development. The study, the first large-scale assessment of
environmental exposures and children’s health in tribal populations is conducted in partnership with tribal
communities and will help to build both research capacity within the tribes as well as capacity of tribal staff to
conduct detailed developmental assessments. The study will follow development of the enrolled children until
age 5 to track trajectories or patterns of neuro- and physical development with respect to environmental
exposures to metal mixtures from abandoned hard rock and uranium mines on or near tribal lands. There are
161,000 such abandoned mines in the Western US, 4,000 of them abandoned uranium mines which are often
unfenced, unmarked and accessible to children. On Navajo Nation alone, more than 500 abandoned uranium
mines remain un-remediated more than 30 years since the closing of the last mine. The proposed research will
address two of the key health outcome focus areas identified by the ECHO program through study of the
effects of prenatal and early childhood exposure on 1) neurodevelopment, and 2) obesity. Based on the team’s
preliminary findings, the research will focus on dysregulation of immune function as a result of exposure to
metal mixtures during gestation, and mechanisms by which this dysregulation can lead to neurodevelopmental
delays and obesity. The work will be conducted as part of the NIH Consortium to study Environmental
Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) which will attempt to bring together as many as 50,000 children
from existing birth cohort studies to understand the complex interactions of toxicant, social, nutritional, and
cultural environments on developmental trajectories. Inclusion of the Native American Cohort will bring to the
Consortium the first in-depth look at how normal child development progresses in Native populations in
addition to how environmental adversity affects that course. Native Americans have far greater rates of
poverty and unemployment, lack much essential infrastructure including clean drinking water and sewers, and
have lower educational completion rates. However, they also have strong cultural identities, strength in child-
rearing from extended families, and differences in appreciation of significant developmental milestones that
have been associated with the development of resilience that helps in overcoming adversity. Therefore, their
inclusion in this effort to understand the effects of exposure on these important health outcomes will bring a
perspective that will serve not only to inform our understanding of development in the US through inclusion of
the di...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10191069
- **Project number:** 5UH3OD023344-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Johnnye L Lewis
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $4,249,553
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-21 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10191069

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10191069, Understanding Risk Gradients from Environment on Native American Child Health Trajectories: Toxicants, Immunomodulation, Metabolic syndromes, & Metals Exposure (5UH3OD023344-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10191069. Licensed CC0.

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