UB’s Work on Lead Poisoning, Other Health Disparities Focus of Community Research Event

By Vicky Santos

The event featured research discussions on a variety of topics that are pertinent to Buffalo, including early childhood lead exposure, dental health inequities, structural racism and prostate cancer.

Opening remarks were made by Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, and director of the Community Health Equity Research Institute; and Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School.

“Health equity is easily one of the most critical issues affecting the wellbeing and health of our communities today,” Brashear said. “Here in Western New York, the truth is, is that we don’t have to look very hard to find examples of health inequities and disparities in our communities, environments, and health care systems.”

“Confronting health inequities and disparities cannot be a passive activity. And I’m thrilled and inspired to see UB’s Community Health Equity Research Institute continue to take charge of this incredibly important endeavor,” she added.  

Leah Bartlo, a UB doctoral candidate and Presidential Fellow in the Graduate School of Education, and Research Fellow in the Community Health Equity Research Institute, gave a presentation on her research and community collaborations to mitigate lead exposure in children.

Bartlo’s 10 minute talk, “University-Community Partnership to Mitigate a Root Cause of Health Inequities: Early Childhood Lead Poisoning,” was followed with a proclamation by April N. McCants-Baskin, chair of the Erie County Legislature, in recognition of International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week.

According to Bartlo, 93% of homes in Buffalo likely contain lead hazards from deteriorated lead-based paint. A Reuters investigation in 2016 found that Buffalo's old housing and high poverty create the perfect conditions for one of the worst childhood lead poisoning problems in the country. The Reuters investigation also found at least four City of Buffalo zip codes where 40% of children tested from 2006-14 had high lead levels, making Buffalo among the most dangerous lead hotspots in America.

“I presented my experience forming a university-community partnership with the LEAD716 program and shared findings that can be used to support private and publicly-funded lead poisoning prevention initiatives in Buffalo, as well as in other cities, to make them more effective and efficient in reducing the number of children who are harmed,” Bartlo said.

The research is from her dissertation, “Prevention, Navigation, and Mitigation of Early Childhood Lead Exposure in Buffalo, New York: A Mixed Methods Case Study.”

Bartlo is partnering with local organizations like Lead716, Lead it Go, and Get Ahead of Lead, as well as Baskin, who was the chief coordinator and lead sponsor of the Office of Health Equity Act, a new county office whose sole focus will be on the social determinants of health, while developing programs and policies to address racial inequities in health care.

No amount of lead is safe, and lead can wreak havoc on a child’s ability to learn and behave in school, Bartlo said. Through her research, she is examining the experiences of parents and caregivers of children exposed to lead in the context of local lead poisoning prevention, navigation, and mitigation initiatives.

“Findings can empower parents and caregivers as they work to protect their children from the harmful effects of lead exposure,” Bartlo said.

In addition to Bartlo’s research, the event featured four more research talks and community presentations.

Each talk was 10 minutes long, followed by five minutes of questions, and was moderated by Sam Abramovich, PhD, associate professor and associate dean of academic affairs, UB Graduate School of Education.

The keynote address, “Developing and Testing Behavioral Interventions for Diabetes in Ethnic Minority Populations: Two Decades of Lessons Learned," was given by Leonard E. Egede, MD, the Charles and Mary Bauer Endowed Professor and Chair of medicine in the Jacobs School.

Egede is a nationally recognized health disparities researcher whose work focuses on developing and testing innovative interventions aimed at addressing and ultimately eliminating health disparities in chronic medical and mental health conditions that result from race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and geographic location.