protecting the fetus and the child
from environmental hazards

a healthy environment
for all children

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Mount Sinai Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research

Mission Statement

Children's Environmental Health Activities

• Project 1: a community-based prevention research trial, with intervention and control arms, will be undertaken in East Harlem, NYC, in partnership with a network of community-based organizations and a Community Advisory Board. The goal of this project is to reduce exposures to pesticides, PCBs and other developmental toxicants in households. In intervention households, Integrated Pest Management and dietary modification will be applied. Outcome evaluation in both groups will consist of baseline and follow-up measures of pesticide levels in house dust; pesticide metabolite levels in urine; roach infestation levels; and frequency of consumption of local fish.
  
  
• Project 2: a prospective epidemiologic study of an ethnically diverse birth cohort of infants born at Mt. Sinai. It will assess whether in utero exposures to pesticides and other toxicants are associated with developmental delays.
  
  
• Project 3: a study of genetic polymorphisms in the enzymes that activate and detoxify organophosphates and other pesticides in the population of mothers and infants enrolled in Project 2.
  
  
• Project 4: a retrospective study of African-Americans to assess whether in utero exposures to PCBs are associated with neurophyschological dysfuntion in adolescent or adult life.
  
  
• Project 5: an examination of the mechanisms by which environmental toxicants affect neuroendocrine development.