More than 150 Rio Grande Valley high school students learned about an emerging scientific discipline – environmental health – on April 29 at the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) Medical Education Division in Harlingen. A daylong workshop at the RAHC featured presentations from nationally prominent experts who discussed the exploding career opportunities in environmental health and shared their own diverse professional experiences.
“It’s important that we attract bright, eager young men and women into this newly emerging discipline,” said Claudia S. Miller, M.D., medical director of the Environmental Medicine Education Program at the RAHC. “Environmental health encompasses a wide variety of scientific disciplines such as public health, toxicology, occupational and environmental medicine, genetics and epidemiology. Conducting the conference for high school students is important because this is the time when they are exploring career opportunities and making decisions about their career paths.”
The workshop is believed to have been the first event of its kind to be targeted to high school students. While “career days” are common, this session uniquely emphasized hands-on experiential learning in environmental health. Hands-on stations helped students consider questions such as:
• Have you ever tested a product for the presence of lead, a dangerous environmental toxin?
• Have you wondered how federal, state and local agencies respond to environmental disasters such as chemical spills or leaks?
• Have you ever taken an uncomfortably close look at mold, dust mites or other microscopic environmental contaminants?
• Have you ever seen just how many germs you carry on your hands, and how many you miss when you wash them?
The approach is modeled after the South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) program, which is conducted by the Health Science Center. In the STEER program, medical, nursing and public health students take a four-week elective course at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo that teaches them about environmental health both in the classroom and out in the field. Program participants also take an active role in environmental research and community-based environmental initiatives.
One of the key messages conveyed at the Harlingen workshop was the sheer breadth of potentially hazardous exposures people face in their daily lives—at work, at home and in their communities. Students learned about acute environmental disasters by touring the Environmental Protection Agency’s First Response Demonstration, a mobile facility that provides sophisticated analytical and containment equipment, and expertise, at major chemical spills and other environmental emergencies.
More mundane exposures that can pose hazards in the long run were featured at the other stations. A display of potentially harmful household products– some that people may not regard as potentially hazardous– showed that everyday materials found in our homes can pose a threat.
Lead exposure is a continuing concern, and another station gave students the opportunity to test various products to determine which ones contain the toxin.
A station called “Glow Germ” graphically illustrated how infections are spread – and how hand washing can help control them – by allowing participants to see their hands, after they wash them, under a black light that spotlighted the germs we all carry. The teenagers also responded to the “Dust Mites, Molds and Other Yucky Stuff” station, where they had a chance to look at these well-known sources of indoor air pollution and respiratory health problems under a microscope.
Students from Brownsville, Harlingen, Mercedes and other cities participated. The event was made possible in part by a grant to the Health Science Center from the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
