PAHs: New Technologies and Emerging Health Risks

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The Oregon State University Superfund Research Program (SRP) is multi-investigator, multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional. In partnership wit Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, and other stakeholders and collaborators, we seek to develop new technologies to assess polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found at many of the nation's Superfund sites and assess the risk they pose for human health. The SRP consists of three biomedical research projects, two non-biomedical research projects, Administrative, Research Translation, Community Engagement, Training and two research support cores (Biostatistics and Modeling and Chemistry). Over the next five years of the program a number of innovative and high impact research goals will be pursued including: (1) the first ever study of how humans take-up and excrete carcinogenic PAHs at environmental levels of exposure; (2) produce Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for risk assessment of PAH mixtures; (3) determine developmental toxicities of PAH mixtures and PAHs formed in the environment using a zebrafish model; (4) employ passive sampling devices to assess bioavailable PAHs at Superfund sites and the effectiveness of remediation strategies and; (5) employ new analytical approaches to assessing chemical changes in PAHs in soilds and sediments at Superfund sites over time. The cores will: (1) direct the activities of the SRP (Administrative); (2) pursue effective mechanisms for disseminating our findings to stakeholders (Research Translation), (3) work with communities impacted by PAH exposure to address concerns and pursue solutions for reduced risk (Community Engagement); (4) provide intensive multi-disciplinary training opportunities for the next generation of Environmental Health Scientists (Training) and; (5 and 6) provide Biostatistical and Modeling support for the design, conduct and interpretation of the research being conducted as well as using state-of the-art Chemistry instrumentation and approaches to assess the identity and quantity of hundreds of PAHs found in environmental and biological matrices. Accomplishing these goals will provide significant scientific advancement and improve the quality of life for impacted communities.