Binational Center To Address
Environmental Challenges in Border Region
March 21, 2006
From: Ginny Geib,
(520) 626-3389
geib@pharmacy.arizona.edu
Tucson, Arizona-The
University of Arizona has received $1.5 million administered through
the Environmental Protection Agency to fully implement a binational center to
resolve environmental health challenges along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Associated with the UA Superfund Basic Research Program,
the center will foster partnerships between UA scientists from six colleges and
Mexican scientists from 10 different universities and research institutes.
The mission of the U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental
Science and Toxicology is to support environmental science and
toxicology training and research. It also will help researchers and stakeholders
develop policy concerning risk assessment and remediation of hazardous
environmental contaminants that are prevalent in the border region and build
environmental science expertise in Mexico.
The first research projects of the center will address
the relationship of arsenic and diabetes and breast cancer incidences along the
U.S.-Mexico border, long-term effects of heavy metals on children's health,
landfill leachate plumes, and mine tailings.
The center has a strong educational component. It will
provide training fellowships for Mexican doctoral students of environmental
science, engineering and toxicology. It also will develop Spanish-language
textbooks and information sheets addressing environmental legislation,
environmental engineering and science and environmental toxicology.
The $1.5 million in funding, designated from Fiscal Year
2005 congressional special appropriations, is being administered to the center
in two grants through the EPA and added to funds previously received for
starting the center.
In 2003, a memorandum of understanding was signed
between Mexico's Science and
Education Ministry (CONACyT) and The University of Arizona formalizing the
Binational
Center for Environmental
Science and Toxicology. The UA has been active since then seeking additional
funds to support the center beyond the $75,000 provided annually by the
Superfund Basic Research Program outreach core. In 2004, funding of $300,000
from the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) was obtained to
support international exchange of graduate students and training workshops. In
2005, CONACyT contributed $100,000 in support of the binational center.
A. Jay Gandolfi,
professor in the College of
Pharmacy and director of the Superfund
Basic Research Program, and Jim
Field, professor in the College of Engineering, are co-directing the
binational center.
Additional background regarding
U.S.-Mexico
Binational Center for Environmental Science and
Toxicology:
- The University of
Arizona's Superfund Basic
Research Program is funded by the National Institutes of Health's National
Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
- The environmental
contaminants found in the U.S.-Mexico border region are the same ones that
already have been studied for many years as part of the UA Superfund Basic
Research Program.
- This border region
is an area of mass migration associated with a huge increase in manufacturing,
agriculture and trade. The population growth has outstripped the capacity of
local municipalities to provide adequate water, sanitation and basic health
services. As a result, border populations are exposed daily to a wide variety
of pollutants that are linked to increased incidences of health problems,
especially among children. Numerous Mexican cities are faced with groundwater
threatened by landfill leachates. Many populations are also exposed to high
levels of metals via mining and metal processing industries. Mine-tailing
piles are a persistent source of metal-laden dust in other areas. Groundwater
also is affected by alarmingly high levels of arsenic in certain areas,
including the state of Sonora.
- The participating
universities and research institutes are coordinated through the Center for
Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnical Institute of
Mexico (CINVESTAV). University of Arizona colleges associated with the
center are the colleges of pharmacy, engineering, science, public health,
medicine and agriculture and life sciences. Mexican research institutes and
colleges involved are: Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del
Instituto Politécnico Nacional; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México;
Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosí; Universidad Juárez del Estado de
Durango; Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Torreón; Centro de Investigación
Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada; Instituto Tecnológico de
Sonora; Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa; Universidad de Sonora;
Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero.
# # #
Susan
Guthrie
Associate Director, Public
Affairs
University of Arizona, College of Medicine - Phoenix
4001 North
Third Street, Suite
401
Phoenix, Arizona 85012
602-631-6555 (office) 480-241-7738
(cell)
sguthrie@email.arizona.edu
www.phoenix.arizona.edu
To read about the
expansion of the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix go to http://www.phoenix.medicine.arizona.edu/About/News/Campus/