An academic-community outreach partnership: building relationships and capacity to address childhood lead poisoning.

BACKGROUND: Although academic institutions are rich resources for improving public health, academic partnerships with community organizations can be challenging. We describe a successful academic-community partnership composed of the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program, the Manchester (New Hampshire) Health Department, and the Greater Manchester Partners Against Lead Poisoning (GMPALP). OBJECTIVE: Partners collaborated to translate science and best practices into social action and policy change to address childhood lead poisoning. METHODS: Using the evolution of a childhood lead poisoning prevention initiative, we discuss how an academic-community relationship can be created and sustained. LESSONS LEARNED: Our experience demonstrates that broad-based partnerships are enhanced by the attributes of community-based participatory research (CBPR). We observe that engaging in community collaborations that are not driven by research eliminates potential conflicts for academic and community partners. CONCLUSION: We identify four core values, namely, (1) adaptability, (2) consistency, (3) shared authority, and (4) trust, as being constructive when working in such partnerships.

Meeting report: Methylmercury in marine ecosystems--from sources to seafood consumers.

Mercury and other contaminants in coastal and open-ocean ecosystems are an issue of great concern globally and in the United States, where consumption of marine fish and shellfish is a major route of human exposure to methylmercury (MeHg). A recent National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-Superfund Basic Research Program workshop titled "Fate and Bioavailability of Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems and Effects on Human Exposure," convened by the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program on 15-16 November 2006 in Durham, New Hampshire, brought together human health experts, marine scientists, and ecotoxicologists to encourage cross-disciplinary discussion between ecosystem and human health scientists and to articulate research and monitoring priorities to better understand how marine food webs have become contaminated with MeHg. Although human health effects of Hg contamination were a major theme, the workshop also explored effects on marine biota. The workgroup focused on three major topics: a) the biogeochemical cycling of Hg in marine ecosystems, b) the trophic transfer and bioaccumulation of MeHg in marine food webs, and c) human exposure to Hg from marine fish and shellfish consumption. The group concluded that current understanding of Hg in marine ecosystems across a range of habitats, chemical conditions, and ocean basins is severely data limited. An integrated research and monitoring program is needed to link the processes and mechanisms of MeHg production, bioaccumulation, and transfer with MeHg exposure in humans.