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Responding to Communities: Communicating the Science of TCE and PCE

October 20, 2015
10:00 am US Eastern Time

Listen to Recording

Twelfth in a series of calls organized by CHE and the Boston University Superfund Research Program (BU SRP).

Trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) are man-made degreasing agents; PCE is also often used in the dry cleaning process. Communities may be faced with contaminated sites that lead to the intrusion of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as TCE and PCE. Both chemicals have been well-documented to exert toxicological and neurobehavioral effects in humans.

The speakers on this call discussed the health effects of TCE and PCE, particularly their renal toxicological and neurobehavioral effects, within the context of the recently released Institute of Medicine’s Review of VA Clinical Guidance for the Health Conditions Identified by the Camp Lejeune Legislation. They provided information on promoting and facilitating public participation in the oversight of environmental activities that involve communicating science and solutions for TCE and/or PCE exposure. Lastly, they wrapped up with a case study in which two of the speakers were involved in organizing responses to community concerns and questions about TCE and PCE contamination in groundwater near two schools in the Winston-Salem area in 2014.

Featured Speakers

Lenny Siegel has been Executive Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight since 1994. He is one of the American environmental movement’s leading experts on both military facility contamination and the vapor intrusion pathway, and for his organization he runs two Internet newsgroups: the Military Environmental Forum and the Brownfields Internet Forum. In July 2011 Siegel was awarded U.S. EPA’s Superfund Citizen of the Year award. Siegel serves on numerous advisory and technical committees, including the ITRC Munitions Response Classification and Complex Sites Work Teams and the Moffett Field Restoration Advisory Board. Siegel has served on a dozen U.S. National Research Council (National Academies of Sciences) committees. In November 2014 he was elected to the Mountain View, California City Council.

Patricia Janulewicz, DSc, Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Janulewicz received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, majoring in Biology and Psychology. She continued her education at Boston University, receiving a Master’s in Public Health and Doctor of Science degree in Environmental Health. She has received extensive training in Neurotoxicology and Teratology, her field of expertise.  Dr. Janulewicz Lloyd served on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee on the Review of Clinical Guidance for the Care of Health Conditions Identified by the Camp Lejeune Legislation and will speak to us about that particular experience.

Kathleen Gray, MSPH, Director, Environmental Resource Program, Associate Director for Outreach and Public Service and Lecturer, Institute for the Environment, UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Gray manages the Environmental Resource Program (ERP), with a mission of enhancing public understanding of current environmental science and health research and its relevance to daily life, and empowering North Carolinians to make informed decisions that protect the environment and public health. She also directs the outreach and research translation efforts of two federally-funded research centers in UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Gray has over 20 years experience conducting environmental health education with community audiences and assisting businesses and government agencies in making sustainable choices. 

This call was moderated by BU SRP Research Translation Core Leader Dr. Wendy Heiger-Bernays.