Supported with funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Superfund Research Program, the PROTECT Center studies exposure to environmental contamination in Puerto Rico and its contribution to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth (less than 37 completed weeks of gestation).
PROTECT (Puerto Rico Test Site to Explore Contamination Threats) Community Engagement Core The Community Engagement Core provides bidirectional and ethical communication between the research projects and community to facilitate much-needed research and community engagement on environmental contamination in Puerto Rico and on environmental and other contributors to preterm birth.
PROTECT (Puerto Rico Test Site to Explore Contamination Threats) Research Translation Core Research Translation Core provides coordination and leadership across PROTECT to ensure that all research is widely translated to stakeholders (federal/state/local, particularly to the entire SRP community and EPA and ATSDR), policymakers, professional societies/groups, industry, the university research community, non-profits, and broader public audiences.
There are 18 Superfund sites in Puerto Rico, and evidence of contamination of the drinking water is extensive. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, or flooding, may also result in elevated exposures to Superfund chemicals. Although Puerto Rico is an island with an unusually high burden of pollution, PROTECT is the first project to investigate the causal relationships between environmental pollutants and adverse pregnancy outcomes in this at-risk population.
The PROTECT Center seeks to understand the mechanisms by which exposure to mixtures of suspect chemicals contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes. To conduct these analyses, the PROTECT Center develops new statistical methods and data mining, machine learning, and visualization tools. The Center also investigates the impacts of extreme weather events on contaminant transport and exposure, and new water treatment technologies are being developed for portable and robust water treatment systems. The PROTECT Center continues to employ innovative approaches to engage and educate the community, involve study participants, report data, and communicate with stakeholders.
PROTECT is a multi-project, multi-institution collaboration that involves five primary institutions: Northeastern University, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, University of Georgia, and University of Michigan. Collaborators also include Cornell University, West Virginia University, Silent Spring Institute, and EarthSoft Inc.