# Community Engagement Core (CEC)

> **NIH NIH P42** · LOUISIANA STATE UNIV A&M COL BATON ROUGE · 2020 · $150,350

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract: Community Engagement Core (CEC)
Roughly 53 million people live within 3 miles of a Superfund remediation site. Research on environmental
contaminants from these sites indicates that environmentally persistent free radical (EPFR) concentrations
range to an order of magnitude in concentration above those in surrounding uncontaminated areas. These
EPFRs have been shown to form during thermal treatment (TT) of Superfund sites and other hazardous
wastes. Our data demonstrate that EPFRs adversely impact cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic health.
The overall goal of the Community Engagement Core (CEC) is to build an innovative and responsive,
bidirectional community engagement program to develop solutions to reduce exposure and enhance the health
and safety of communities near Superfund sites and other sites where hazardous materials undergo TT. The
CEC directly addresses SRP Mandate #4 (i.e., methods to reduce the amount and toxicity of hazardous
substances). In addition to a new environmental health literacy project, we have designed the LSU Clean Air
Research Engagement for Superfund Communities (LaCARES). We will work with two communities: Colfax,
LA, home to a TT facility for Superfund and other hazardous wastes, and the Superfund community of Alsen,
LA where TT of hazardous wastes was conducted. Residents of these communities also face environmental
justice (EJ) challenges. We will develop a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) program in close
collaboration with Projects 3 and 4. The CEC, SRP researchers, and trainees will work to increase
understanding of EPFRs and develop prevention/intervention strategies in partnership with the communities.
We will develop a new interactive air-quality website and mobile phone app (LouiSA—Louisiana State
University Superfund Research Center Air Quality). Through this app, residents will be able to record, upload,
and share their observations concerning air quality, odors, and physical symptoms that they experience. The
residents’ observations will be reported by the app, which will eventually incorporate measurements from the
monitors deployed in Project 3. The community-based monitoring (consisting of input from residents about
where to deploy air monitors and uploading of results and individual observations of air quality) will serve to
validate smaller, inexpensive monitoring kits being developed by Project 4 to be deployed by the residents
through the CEC. We will work collaboratively with residents to identify actions they may take that mitigate
exposure risks, such as limiting outdoor activities, running air conditioners, and including more antioxidant
nutrients in their diets. Finally, the CEC will help residents prepare comments for meetings with regulators so
that they may participate more effectively in collective decisions about the treatment of hazardous materials in
their communities. These collaborative activities—selecting locations to be monitored, re...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9838933
- **Project number:** 2P42ES013648-08A1
- **Recipient organization:** LOUISIANA STATE UNIV A&M COL BATON ROUGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Margaret A Reams
- **Activity code:** P42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $150,350
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9838933

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9838933, Community Engagement Core (CEC) (2P42ES013648-08A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9838933. Licensed CC0.

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