Fellowships Grants and Awards
Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives (2002)

Department of Health and Human Service's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) are seeking applications for research on lifestyle and cultural practices of tribal populations and risks from toxic substances in the environment.Tribal populations may be at especially high risk for environmentally caused diseases and health outcomes because of their subsistence lifestyles, occupations and customs, and/or environmental releases affecting tribal lands.This solicitation invites applications in two areas of current interest, the development of 1) exposure and effects assessment methods that can be broadly applied across geographic regions and tribal populations and 2) risk management strategies and options that will lead to reduction in risk from exposure.The ATSDR is mandated by Congress to perform specific functions concerning the effect on public health of hazardous substances in the environment.These functions include applied research in support of public health assessments, information development and dissemination, and education and training concerning hazardous substances.Supporting research proposals awarded as a result of this request for applications (RFA) is consistent with a number of the ATSDR's research focus areas for 2002-2010, including ascertaining the relationship between exposure to toxic substances and disease and developing and providing reliable, understandable information for people in affected communities and tribes and for stakeholders.The ATSDR's interest in this grant solicitation is to assist tribes in their understanding of exposures, potential health risks, and ways to reduce exposures and risks that are culturally acceptable.Proposals in response to this RFA should demonstrate the ability of new or existing methods and models to measure and/or predict the cumulative exposure and effects directly related to subsistence practices.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, 1) methods and studies to quantify subsistence-based exposures and attendant effects that occur primarily through food, medicinal, cultural/ceremonial, and occupational practices and 2) models that integrate the data collected on the subsistence activities described above to ascertain/predict the cumulative exposure profile, that is, total exposure through diet, medicinal, cultural/ceremonial, occupational, and other practices, and attendant risks.The EPA and the ATSDR will support research that leads to approaches to reduce subsistence-based risk, especially those that may not compromise lifestyles to a significant extent.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the development of 1) approaches to estimate the distribution of subsistence-based risk within or across subsistence groups and geographic regions, including the relative contribution of various practices, for example, diet, medicinal, cultural/ceremonial, and occupational, to the cumulative exposure; 2) methods, which may include educational and/or intervention materials, to reduce risk in subsistence groups; and 3) culturally sensitive strategies, approaches, and plans that will help reduce subsistence-based risk.The EPA and the ATSDR encourage applications that can address one or more of the above objectives that relate to lifestyle and cultural practices of tribal populations and risks from toxic substances in the environment.Four major benefits are expected from these grants: 1) new partnerships that