An $11.5-million grant will let Brown University researchers collaborate with state agencies to look into hazardous waste problems and subsequent cleanups.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 26, 2005

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Across the country, toxic contaminants in the soil have caused cancer clusters, neurological disorders and a raft of other disastrous health and environmental problems.

But Brown University scientists' efforts to identify hazardous waste threats and develop new ways of removing them are getting an $11.5-million research boost from the National Institute of Enviromental Health Sciences.

The four-year grant -- one of Brown's largest research awards in the last five years -- establishes Brown as one of 18 universities funded under the Superfund Basic Research Program, according to The Brown News Service.

That Superfund program finances projects that use science to protect public health and improve the environment.

"It's very exciting for all of Rhode Island," said Kim Boekelheide, a Brown professor of medical science who will oversee the project. "I'm looking forward to being as successful as we can."

Boekelheide said the grant will enable a unique collaboration between Brown researchers and state agencies "to look into some problems that are long-lasting, that Rhode Island has and other parts of the country have as well."

Officials at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the Department of Health will serve as project advisers, "keeping scientists trained on the real-world concerns of hazardous waste cleanup and public health policy," The Brown News Service said.

Rhode Island is home to 13 sites on the Superfund National Priorities List (waste sites considered the most dangerous in the nation), as well as an estimated 300 brownfields, or properties requiring cleanup before being reused.

As one of the early industrial states in the nation, Rhode Island "has accumulated a legacy of contaminated sites from its industrial activities that are complex and difficult to handle," said Boekelheide.

The grant addresses projects that have to do with complex exposures involving multiple contaminants, "and the engineering remediation attempts to understand those exposures and deal with them," he said. For example, one researcher is examining exposure risks from asbestos fibers mixed with dust from metal, plaster, brick or other building materials.

Under the university's program, Brown medical school researchers will evaluate the health effects of exposure to common toxins such as asbestos, PCBs and mercury, and chemical experts from the Division of Engineering will develop safe, affordable remediation devices.

Besides the seven research projects, the grant will pay for a state agency liaison, and publications that will educate low-literacy communities and susceptible populations to the risks of exposures to enviromental contaminants.

William Suk, director of the Superfund Basic Research Program, said Brown was the only new applicant that National Institute of Enviromental Health Sciences funded this year. Suk said that Brown's project "features first-rate science."

According to the state DEM, about 100 brownfields across Rhode Island totaling 1,000 acres either have been or are in the process of being redeveloped. Former factories and wharves have been transformed into condominiums, retail stores, a waterfront hotel, a manufacturing plant, and educational and recreational facilities.

"Creating opportunities for the safe reuse of lands in Rhode Island will have an immediate impact on our ability to attract, grow and retain businesses," said Michael McMahon, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.