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Team Science Applied to Environmental Health Research: Karst Hydrogeology and Preterm Birth in Puerto Rico

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Karst Groundwater Contamination and Public Health

Part of the book series: Advances in Karst Science ((AKS))

Abstract

Understanding the interaction of environmental contamination and its impact on human health stretches the disciplinary demands required for effective research. Team science is required to understand the origin of contaminants, their pathways to human, their health effects, and for development of effective mitigation. We describe a team science model applied to the study of preterm birth in a region of karst hydrogeology, the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT). This research program uses an innovative, holistic, source-to-outcome transdisciplinary approach that integrates epidemiological, toxicological, analytical, fate-transport, and remediation studies, along with a unified sampling infrastructure, a centralized, indexed data repository and a data management system. PROTECT is contributing new knowledge about the risk that contaminants may pose in pregnancy resulting in preterm birth, how these contaminants reach karst aquifers, and what are the biological mechanisms by which environmental contaminants may promote preterm birth. PROTECT also is developing novel remediation approaches that will target removal of contaminants linked to preterm births from ground water. These integrated efforts offer unique opportunities to address a serious public health problem and its solution would result in a healthier population and a healthier environment.

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Acknowledgements

Support of the work described is provided through Award Number P42ES017198 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the PROTECT research project and partial support from RCMI grant G12 MD007600 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views or policies of NIEHS, NIMHD, or NIH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    José F. Cordero

  2. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    John D. Meeker & Rita Loch-Caruso

  3. Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Roger Giese

  4. Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR, USA

    Ingrid Padilla

  5. Department of Geology & Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Dorothy Vesper

  6. College of Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    David Kaeli, Thomas Sheahan & Akram N. Alshawabkeh

  7. College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Phil Brown

  8. Department of Social Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, USA

    Carmen M. Vélez-Vega

Authors
  1. José F. Cordero
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  2. John D. Meeker
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  3. Rita Loch-Caruso
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  4. Roger Giese
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  5. Ingrid Padilla
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  6. Dorothy Vesper
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  7. David Kaeli
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  8. Thomas Sheahan
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  9. Phil Brown
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  10. Carmen M. Vélez-Vega
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  11. Akram N. Alshawabkeh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José F. Cordero .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geosciences Department, The Pennsylvania State University Geosciences Department, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    William B. White

  2. University of Virginia, Department of Environmental Sciences University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Janet S. Herman

  3. Bucknell University, Department of Geology Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA

    Ellen K. Herman

  4. US Environmental Protection Agency , Washington, DC, USA

    Marian Rutigliano

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

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Cordero, J.F. et al. (2018). Team Science Applied to Environmental Health Research: Karst Hydrogeology and Preterm Birth in Puerto Rico. In: White, W., Herman, J., Herman, E., Rutigliano, M. (eds) Karst Groundwater Contamination and Public Health. Advances in Karst Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51070-5_3

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