Issues > September/October 2005 (#110) > A Girls' Lifestyle Study in East Harlem: Mount Sinai Community Outreach

A Girls' Lifestyle Study in East Harlem: Mount Sinai Community Outreach

A new study at The Mount Sinai Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCEH) is looking at how environmental factors influence childhood growth and development in East Harlem, New York City. Children in this neighborhood face all kinds of environmental health threats: air pollution linked to high asthma rates; brain-damaging lead in old crumbling paint; and lack of access to fresh whole foods and safe places to exercise. On top of this they're exposed every day, as are most of us, to man-made chemicals in food and household and personal-care products. These chemicals include suspected endocrine disrupters such as phthalates. The study, known as Growing Up Healthy, will examine how these environmental factors may influence growth and development in children.

Another related study focuses on puberty, specifically in girls. This second study will investigate the possibility that earlier onset of puberty in girls may be influenced by environmental factors. (Reaching puberty at a young age may be related to developing breast cancer later in life.) For five years, beginning at ages six to eight, Mary Wolff, Ph.D., and her CCEH team will track 400 African American and Latina girls. Age at each stage of breast development and at menarche will be recorded, and the girls' body levels of environmental toxins will be measured in their urine. "We are interested in relationships between endocrine disrupters and child growth and development, including cognitive and behavioral development and body size changes," Dr. Wolff says. A product-use questionnaire will be used to find out how children may have been exposed.

In an innovative step, the researchers are working with the girls and their families to promote healthier lifestyles, and to translate scientific findings into information that can be used by the local community. "It's important that the children be involved and learn, and that the community benefit from this information rather than just be studied," says Luz Claudio, Ph.D., who has conducted research on asthma with the active participation of schoolchildren. "I also hope the science workshops and other activities and materials we are creating will inspire more girls and minority children to study science and medicine," Dr. Claudio adds.

It seems to be working already. While attending a hands-on science session, Cells, Genes and DNA, in Mount Sinai's Growing Up Healthy Lab, a child exclaimed, "That's what my DNA looks like? It's gross and stringy, but it's cool!" Another child said, "Can we do this again? I can't wait to come back." In a workshop called Chemical Reactions, kids and parents made non-toxic, inexpensive hand lotion and bath salts by combining olive oil, lecithin and distilled water in a blender. "I got oil and water to mix! I never knew lotion was so easy to make; I'm going to make some more when I get home," a parent said. During The Foods We Eat workshop, a parent remarked, "I can't believe you just got my daughter to eat green vegetables. She refuses to eat them at home." Physical activity is also part of the Growing Up Healthy mix; while on an outing to Lasker Rink in Central Park, one child commented, "I've never been ice skating before, this is fun!"

The EPA, the NIEHS, the National Cancer Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center are jointly funding this ambitious project. Growing Up Healthy partner organizations include the City Parks Foundation, the Harlem Children’s Zone, Randall’s Island Sports Foundation and the Little Sisters of the Assumption and many others in the Harlem Community.