CALL FOR PROPOSALS

CONFERENCE DATE: APRIL 27-29, 2025
APPLICATION DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 1, 2024

University and college students in the US and around the world from a variety of academic disciplines are invited to participate in our 20th Annual Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities program for 2024-2025. Our Annual Break the Cycle conference will be on April 27-29, 2025.

Interested students are encouraged to submit a proposal by Friday November 1, 2024, for consideration.
The application forms and program details can be found here :

Proposals are competitive and are reviewed and scored by the Break the Cycle faculty and decisions on selection of students for participation will be communicated by November 11, 2024.

Questions on project ideas or program details can be directed to our Break the Cycle Coordinator, Ximena Guillen at contact@breakthecycleprogram.org

or to Break the Cycle Director, Leslie Rubin MD at lrubi01@emory.edu.

APPLICATION

INVITATION LETTER

BREAK THE CYCLE OF
CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DISPARITIES
20th ANNUAL PROGRAM

A Program of

Break the Cycle of Health Disparities, Inc. and
Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at Emory University.

BTC 20 IS THE 20TH YEAR OF BREAK THE CYCLE!

Children who grow up in an environment where their parents are stressed by
job insecurity,
income insecurity,
housing insecurity,
and food insecurity,
and live in an environment where the air they breathe is polluted,
and the food they eat is not nutritious,
and the houses and spaces where they live are ill-kept, crowded and with limited access to greenspace,
and their schools are old and teachers are tired, so their education is less than optimal,
and they have limited access to quality healthcare,
they are more likely to suffer from stress, which cumulatively adversely affects their physical and mental health and well-being, and dims their aspirations for a promising future for themselves and for their children.

This latter scenario can be conceptualized in an intergenerational Cycle of Health Disparities

Project Guidelines

University students from all disciplines are invited to develop projects that creatively address social, economic, and environmental factors that adversely affect the health of children. Students are required to identify a mentor in their university departments to monitor and guide their projects.
All applications are evaluated based on a focus to the cycle of environmental health disparities, the quality of the proposal, novelty, feasibility, and potential for sustainability. There are a limited number selected for full participation in the program each year.
During the project period there are monthly conference calls to support the progress of the research projects, share ideas and assure that the project is on track and consistent with the spirit of the Break the Cycle concept.
At the end of the project period, students are required to present their projects at a conference which will be open to the public and includes a keynote speaker of national stature. Conference date will be April 2024
Students write papers on their projects which are submitted for publication in an international journal as a monograph of the Break the Cycle projects.
We look froward to following the careers of the students and to remain in contact to monitor the impact of their participation in the Break the Cycle Program on their academic or professional careers.

The Break the Cycle Program focuses on raising awareness of children's environmental health disparities and on cultivating future leaders.

Desired Outcomes

To inspire students from a variety of academic disciplines to explore the relationship between adverse social, economic and environmental factors and the health and development of children and to creatively generate strategies to address the challenges

To collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of academic leaders from different universities and colleges to creatively examine the broader landscape of this topic

To promote leadership among students

To encourage faculty of our university partners to promote academic interest and social awareness of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities.

Each year, students and faculty from a variety of colleges and universities participate in developing projects that will
Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities
to promote health equity for all children.

The students present their projects at a national conference and the results are published in international journals.

Since its inception in 2004, Break the Cycle (BTC) has partnered with over 80 university departments across 21 States in the US, as well as from 6 countries in Latin America and 2 countries in Africa, and has supported research for over 200 trainees. Annual BTC trainee projects are published in international journals and a book series on public health. Alumni of the BTC program rate their mentored research experiences highly and many pursue careers related to their Break the Cycle projects.

Environmental Health Disparities

Children who grow up in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage are at greater risk for exposure to adverse environmental factors and are more likely to suffer adverse health and developmental consequences. Break the Cycle supports an interdisciplinary set of student-driven research projects that explore the environmental, economic and social factors that adversely affect children’s health and creatively develop strategies to promote the health of children and, thereby, Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities.

About the Program

Students are required to work with academic mentors from their respective university programs to submit a proposal on how they would develop a project to Break the Cycle. All proposals will be reviewed, and a limited number will be selected based on relevance to the cycle of environmental health disparities, creativity, feasibility, and strength of the project plan.

Those selected will have the opportunity to work with the Break the Cycle faculty and other students from around the country and internationally, to see the project to completion and present their research results and findings at an annual conference in Atlanta scheduled for the spring of 2025.

There will be monthly conference calls to review projects and provide perspectives and guidance on the projects. During these conference calls, faculty and students will have the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with their counterparts in other disciplines at other universities.

Students will also be required to write a scientific paper on their project which will be published in an international peer-review journal as well as a chapter in a book.

Who Can Apply

Students from all disciplines and training levels are encouraged to apply. This includes undergraduates, graduate students, medical residents, and fellows.

A History of Success

Since its inception in 2004, Break the Cycle (BTC) has partnered with over 80 university departments across 21 States in the US, as well as from 6 countries in Latin America and 2 countries in Africa, and has supported research for over 200 trainees.

In 2012 we conducted a survey of past students who rated their experience with Break the Cycle valuable, and many continued to pursue careers related to their Break the Cycle projects.

BTC 20 SYMPOSIUM:
CUMULATIVE IMPACTS

Our 2024-2025 20th Annual Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities Symposium will be on the theme of Cumulative Impacts.

Since the inception of our Annual Break the Cycle program 20 years ago, we have cultivated the interest of students to develop projects to examine the impact of social, economic, and environmental determinants of health on children who grow up in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage.

To date we have had over 200 student projects completed, presented and published that have illustrated the relationships between the lived experiences of vulnerable children and adverse health outcomes.

While the content of each student project demonstrated how to Break the Cycle at any point to reduce children’s health disparities, the accumulated findings from the collection of projects, revealed the relevance of the ecological model embedded in the Cycle of Health Disparities diagram.

The model conceptualized in the Cycle diagram implies an intergenerational perpetuation of the adverse experiences with associated adverse health outcomes, so, breaking the cycle becomes not only an immediate and time-limited interruption, but one that has significant and even profound, long term beneficial consequences.

Furthermore, examining the elements in the framework of the Cycle diagram will reveal the multiple and cumulative factors that result in adverse health outcomes, clearly stated in the Environmental Impact section as a combination of Increased Toxins and Increased Stress as the mediators of the Health Risk Factors, which are likewise, not always found in isolation, but more often than not, manifest as associated co-morbidities that are interactive and synergistic, with cumulative adverse outcomes (see diagram below).

Cycle of environmental health disparities

CUMULATIVE IMPACTS

When examining the social, economic, and environmental factors that impact health, it is readily apparent that they do not operate in isolation, but within an ecological framework where disproportionate exposures to pollution and environmental degradation are intimately intertwined with social, emotional, economic, cultural, geographic, and political realities.

When viewed in this relational totality, and in the conceptual Cycle of Health Disparities framework, it is clear that the interactions between the multiple social, economic and environmental determinants of adverse health outcomes are indeed cumulative.

ATSDR defines Cumulative impacts
as the total harm to human health that occurs from the combination of environmental burdens such as pollution and poor environmental conditions, pre-existing health conditions, and social factors such as access to quality healthcare.

EPA defines Cumulative Impacts

as the totality of exposures to combinations of chemical and non-chemical stressors and their effects on health, well-being, and quality of life outcomes.

Chemical stressors

are defined as exogenous environmental compounds. Chemical stressors change or damage living organisms or ecosystems and are released into the environment by waste, emissions, pesticide use, or uses of formulated compounds like pharmaceuticals.

NON-Chemical stressors

are factors found in the built, natural, and social environments including physical factors such as noise, temperature, and humidity and psychosocial factors.

Stressors

are defined as any physical, chemical, social, or biological entity that can induce a change (either positive or negative) in health, well-being, and quality of life.

Chemical and non-chemical stressors can arise from the built, natural, and social environments, which can be collectively referred to as the total environment.

The Built Environment

refers to the artificially constructed surroundings that provide the setting for human activity.

The Natural Environment

encompasses all living and non-living things naturally occurring on Earth.

The Social Environment

includes not only social interactions but factors such as the economy, community, home, school/daycare, demographics, safety, and welfare.

Activities, behaviors, and lifestyle considerations, as well as systems inherent biological factors with genetic and epigenetic elements, interact with the stressors to influence health, well-being, and quality of life.

Health disparities are caused or exacerbated by exposures to environmental pollution and environmental degradation that are disproportionately experienced by disadvantaged and overburdened individuals and communities.

Thus, health disparities are not necessarily related to single agents, but rather to systems challenges produced by the interaction of environmental pollutants with the social and economic factors, resulting in a cumulative adverse impact on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable children.

Our Symposium on Cumulative Impacts will provide context and background on this phenomenon and demonstrate how this operates in our society, and how our understanding and appreciation of the factors that result in the cumulative impact and adverse health outcomes can stimulate creative strategies to Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities and build a brighter future for all children that will ultimately benefit our society at large.

ATSDR. (2022). Environmental Justice Index Fact Sheet. Retrieved from atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/eji/docs/eji_fact_sheet.pdf

CAL EPA 2010. Cumulative Impacts: Building a Scientific Foundation.

https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/report/cumulative-impacts-building-scientificfoundation-report

Chicago DPH 2023. Chicago Cumulative Impact Assessment – 2023 Summary Report

https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdph/environment/CumulativeImpact/oct-update/CIA_ExecutiveSummary_9.17.23_v3.pdf

Coleman, LW, 2021. Cumulative Impact Ordinances Address Environmental Justice. EHS

Daily Advisor
https://ehsdailyadvisor.blr.com/2021/06/cumulative-impactordinances-address-environmental-justice/

DHHS Healthy People 2030, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of

Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved June 10, 2024, from

https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/social-determinants-health

DHHS 2022a. Social determinants of health, social determinants of health literature

summaries. https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinantshealth/literature-summaries

EPA. Cumulative Impacts Research: Recommendations for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-22/014a, 2022.

EPA 2023b. EPA Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice: Cumulative Impacts Addendum.

https://www.epa.gov/ogc/epa-legal-tools-advance-environmental-justice

Lee, C. 2021. Confronting disproportionate impacts and systemic racism in environmental

policy. Environmental Law Reporter 51: 10207-10225.

McHale, CM, Osborne, G, Morello-Frosch, R, Salmon, AG, Sandy, MS, Solomon, S, Zhang, L,

Smith, MT, Zeise, L 2018. Assessing health risks from multiple environmental

stressors: Moving from G×E to I×E. Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation

Research, Volume 775, 2018, Pages 11-20, ISSN 1383-5742,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mrrev.2017.11.003.

Morello-Frosch, R., Zuk, M., Jerrett, M., Shamasunder, B., & Kyle, A. D. (2011). Understanding

the cumulative impacts of inequalities in environmental health: implications for

policy. Health affairs, 30(5), 879-887.

NEJAC 2004. Ensuring Risk Reduction in Communities with Multiple Stressors:

Environmental Justice and Cumulative Risks/Impacts. Retrieved from

epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-02/documents/nejac-cum-risk-rpt-122104.pdf

Nilsen, F. M., Ruiz, J. D., & Tulve, N. S. 2020b. A meta-analysis of stressors from the total

environment associated with children’s general cognitive ability. International Journal

of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15), 5451.

Nilsen FM, Frank J, Tulve NS 2020c. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Investigating the

Relationship between Exposures to Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressors during

Prenatal Development and Childhood Externalizing Behaviors. Int J Environ Res

Public Health. 2020c. 17(7):2361. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17072361. PMID: 32244397;

PMCID: PMC7177257.

Ruiz, J. D. C., Quackenboss, J. J., & Tulve, N. S. (2016). Contributions of a child’s built, natural,

and social environments to their general cognitive ability: A systematic scoping

review. PloS one, 11(2), e0147741.

Solomon GM, Morello-Frosch R, Zeise L, Faust JB 2016. Cumulative Environmental Impacts:

Science and Policy to Protect Communities. Annu Rev Public Health. 2016;37:83-96.

doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032315-021807. Epub 2016 Jan 6. PMID: 26735429.

Torso, K., A. Walts, T. Davis, R. Dee, S. Jastrow, AND D. Lobdell. Exploring Cumulative

Environmental Impacts on Native American and Alaska Native Community Health

through Research and Practice at the U.S. EPA. IASNR, Portland, ME, June 11 - 15,

2023.

Tulve NS, Geller AM, Hagerthey S, Julius SH, Lavoie ET, Mazur SL, Paul SJ, Frey HC.

Challenges and opportunities for research supporting cumulative impact

assessments at the United States environmental protection agency's office of

research and development. Lancet Reg Health Am. 2024 Jan 11;30:100666. doi:

10.1016/j.lana.2023.100666.

Tulve, N., Ruiz, J. D. C., Lichtveld, K., Darney, S. P., & Quackenbos, J. J. (2016). Development

of a Conceptual Framework Depicting a Childs Total (Built, Natural, Social)

Environment in Order to Optimize Health and Well-Being. Journal of Environment and

Health Science, 2(2), 1-8. doi:10.15436/2378-6841.16.1121