DRAFT: Collaboration with the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE) at UC Berkeley

The WSPEHSU has an ongoing collaboration with the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE), working to educate clinicians and the public about environmental toxicants that increase the risk of childhood cancers and other childhood diseases.

Our work with CIRCLE has included the creation and updates of A Story of Health eBook and CE course on childhood cancer, Stephen’s Story, and the project “Improving Environmental Health Literacy of Young Adults.”

Improving Environmental Health Literacy of Young Adults

This project raises awareness of the role of pre-conception, prenatal, and early childhood environmental exposures on the development of childhood cancer and other diseases including developmental disabilities, asthma, and reproductive health. Our materials, based on A Story of Health eBook, educate young couples on environmental toxicants that can impact the health of their children, even before conception They include a variety of resources including a comic book, videos and infographics in English and Spanish. We also conduct training workshops and produce a periodic newsletter for Promotores de Salud and community health workers (CHWs). Click here to see the Promotores and Environmental Health Newsletter.

Informational Resources

Video (English & Spanish)

This ten-minute shadow puppet video tells a story about a young couple learning about the risks of toxicant exposure before conception and during pregnancy.

Graphic Novel: Rosa and Carlos Get Married (English & Spanish)

This 16-page graphic novel tells the story of a young couple who are engaged to be married. Rosa’s mother, Ana, a nurse, and her friend Amy, offer the couple advice about how to avoid environmental toxicants that may pose risks to the young couple before conception and during pregnancy, and how to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Informational Webpage: Rosa and Carlos Plan a Family

‘Rosa and Carlos Plan a Family’ is an informational webpage that follows a young couple as they prepare to have a child. Raising a healthy child begins before pregnancy and the five infographics featured on the page emphasize that it is important to start protecting a child’s health before s/he is even conceived.

Dirty Little Secrets About House Dust

The dust that settles in our homes may seem harmless, but ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ explains that house dust can actually be harmful to your family’s health. In a series of three short videos, this webpage lays out the hazards of house dust contaminated by toxic chemicals and shares tips to avoid exposure to chemicals in the home. The story is related by five-year-old Eleanor, who learned about house dust from her dad, an environmental health scientist.

Is the Relentless Pursuit of a Cure Hazardous to our Health?

Over the past 50 years, we’ve clung to the belief that we would find cures for cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases. Yet the real victories – like the elimination of polio and the decline in lung cancer – resulted from efforts to prevent disease. Our unwavering belief in biotechnology to solve our health problems fails to recognize that the pandemic of chronic disease is largely due to the technologies of the past: motor vehicles, tobacco, air pollution, unhealthy processed foods and toxic chemicals. People get it; over 70% of Americans favor spending more on prevention. Yet 95% of our health dollars are spent on medical care and expensive drugs. Using childhood leukemia and autism as examples, this video initiates a dialogue about preventing chronic disease and disabilities.

CIRCLE was a Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center jointly funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For more information see the CIRCLE website.