Baylor College of Medicine received nearly $15 million from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to renew the Baylor-Rice Superfund Research Program (SRP). The five-year grant allows researchers to investigate how maternal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from Superfund sites contributes to preterm births and neonatal chronic lung disease. The program integrates environmental science, biomedical research, remediation strategies and community engagement to reduce health burdens in the greater Houston area and beyond.
Houston (including the greater Houston area) is home to more than 20 Superfund sites. Superfund sites contain toxic chemicals released from industrial wastes, causing air, water and soil contamination. Pregnant women residing in areas near these sites are at higher risk of exposure to these hazardous chemicals, resulting in adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth. Babies born before the start of week 37 of pregnancy are considered preterm, and they can develop chronic lung diseases due to chemical exposures. The Harris County preterm birth rate is about 12%, which is higher than the national average of 10.4%.
"In the first round of the grant, we mainly focused on PAHs as a chemical exposure influencing preterm birth. With this renewed funding, we are expanding our focus to include studies of other hazardous environmental chemicals found in Harris County Superfund sites to investigate how they too may contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes," said Dr. Bhagavatula Moorthy, professor of pediatrics - neonatology at Baylor, Kurt Randerath MD Endowed Chair at Texas Children's Hospital and principal investigator and program director of the Baylor-Rice SRP center. "While PAHs are found at many Superfund sites in Harris County, we know that people are exposed to multiple chemicals at a time, and we are excited to expand our investigations to the chemical exposures that are most relevant to the people in the greater Houston area."
Research from the first five years of the grant found higher levels of PAHs in the placentas from babies born preterm compared to term. Researchers currently are enrolling approximately 3,000 women to collect blood and urine samples before they deliver their babies and cord blood and placental samples at birth. They also plan to study maternal milk samples to determine if environmental exposure to the Superfund chemicals affects milk production and composition.
The multidisciplinary collaboration spans across six institutions and unites leading scientists, engineers, physicians and community partners to advance environmental health. Other participating institutions include Texas Children's Hospital, Rice University, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Texas Medical Branch and Baylor University. Project and core leaders and consortium partners include Drs. Naomi Halas, Melissa Suter, Krithika Lingappan, Pedro Alvarez, Lance Hallberg, Theodore Wensel, Cristian Coarfa, Nagireddy Putluri and Sascha Usenko.
"SRP uses a systems approach to determine how Superfund chemical exposures can influence pregnancy outcomes and understand the factors that could be targets for interventions to prevent and reduce the health burden associated with chemicals present in the Superfund sites," Moorthy said.
