Health Sciences
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— April 13: Constella is a proud partner of the Head-off Environmental
Asthma in Louisiana (HEAL) program currently underway in New Orleans, LA.
Sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and other
organizations, HEAL works to alleviate childhood asthma in post-Katrina New
Orleans. Learn more at the HEAL
web site, developed by Constella.
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The broad domain of environmental health encompasses health-related effects
associated with air pollution, toxins in drinking water, pollutants in soils
and groundwater, and environmental impacts from various industrial processes.
From basic analysis of animal toxicity studies, Constella's capabilities have
expanded to include areas such as mechanistic studies, biomathematical modeling,
and risk assessment. Today, Constella works with clients to address environmental
health issues through statistical
analysis, information technology, epidemiology,
and information dissemination.
At the helm of our environmental health discipline is David
Brown, MPH, who serves as our director of program development
in the Constella Health Sciences Center for Health Research. David also serves
as the steward for the Constella-lead Environmental Health
Collaborative. A retired commissioned officer in the
U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Brown comes to us after a distinguished
30-year career in environmental health. He served at the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control in
Cincinnati, Ohio, conducting numerous epidemiology studies involving workers
exposed to various toxic agents, and assisted in the management, at the branch
and division level, of many other studies and investigations bringing together
multidisciplinary teams of epidemiologists, biostatisticians, industrial hygienists,
and computer technologists. He also served at the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health, in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina, where he worked on prevention programs, served
as a scientific review administrator, and in the Director's office as Chief
of Staff.
Brown is the first, or co-author, of numerous articles
published in chapter
books and peer-reviewed journals, such as Archives of Environmental Health, American
Journal of Industrial Medicine, Environmental Health, and Journal
of Medicine.
Selected Projects
Environmental Health Collaborative: Partnering to Enhance Global
Environmental Health
In 2006, Constella teamed with the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS) to explore the idea of establishing a "think tank" in the
Research Triangle Park (RTP), NC, to provide advice on critical environmental
health issues of concern from a local, national, and global perspective. RTP
is recognized as the epicenter for environmental health due to the concentration
of Federal agencies (NIEHS, Environmental Protection Agency), universities
(Duke, University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University),
state agencies, and many research organizations such as Constella.
The result of this effort was the creation of a non-profit called the Research
Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative. The Collaborative will be sponsoring
a summit in the spring of 2008 to identify the "grand challenges" in environmental
health. For more information on the Collaborative, contact David Brown at dabrown@constellagroup.com.
National Toxicology Program
In 1983, Constella Group's first major federal contract with the National
Toxicology Program (NTP), administered by the National Institute for Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS), focused on providing statistical consulting services.
Now, 20 years later, Constella continues to conduct these statistical activities,
having been awarded the contract four consecutive times.
Constella's expertise in environmental health has helped the NTP and several
other federal organizations find answers to complex problems relating to environmental
health. For the NTP, we maintain the world's largest database of carcinogenicity
bioassay data. Constella created and maintains the software system to provide
the NTP with high-throughput analyses of reproductive, toxicology, and carcinogenicity
bioassay data. The program relies on our expertise to produce the data analyses
that form the basis for NTP's determinations of carcinogenic potential in its
premier series of Technical
Reports
and the Report on Carcinogens.
Additionally, we rely on our staff expertise in writing, editing, and document
production to prepare the Report on Carcinogens.
Needlestick: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health,
Study on Paramedics
For paramedics and other non-hospital workers, clearly there is a great need
to protect against blood-born infections such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis
C. On task from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH),
Constella launched a nationwide study to determine exposure rates, risk factors,
and preventative measures for these front-line workers.
Formative methods drove this population-based research. Surveys and interviews
from thousands of paramedics across the United States provided initial information
on their incidence of blood exposure. We took it a step further by riding along
with paramedics, observing and recording their potential for exposure in attending
emergency situations. We analyzed the data, comparing incidence of exposure
to hospital-based workers, and reported the information to NIOSH. (Ultimately,
NIOSH tasked Constella with parallel work to study the exposure of home-health
nurses to blood-borne infections.)
Our results prompted the need to review the guidelines and policies for the
protection of paramedics. We published results in The Annals of Epidemiology, www.annalsofepidemiology.com,
and presented findings at national epidemiological conferences.
