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This issue of Environmental
Health Netos is about crossing borders-literally
federally funded International
Scholars in Occupational and Environmental
and jigurativelyo Through tbe
Health program, we have trained
, researcbers and clinicians on ttoo continents. In this netosletter; we describe a project with school children in
Costa Rica ~nd a conference with health professionals from througbou: Southeast Asia: Air pollution knpws
no boundaries, andtve discuss air.quality projects that span the US-Canada
and Washington-Idaho
borders.
\
We also describe an international conference on the hazards ofhealth care uork.
ECOAMIGOS:
LEARNING FROM
OROSI, COSTA RICA-The
children are
young-only 9 or 10 years old-but they have
been through much in their young lives. In
HHLTH
sion on risk prevention raised concerns about
excessive deforestation from intensive 'coffee
~
and burying seven people. More than 400 were
culture.
.-\SL~
5
left homeless.
From this -tragedy carne a learning opportu-
While their parents may take a-fatalistic
approach of"landslides just happen," the chil-
lTH
6
AET)'
o SOliTHE xs
nity, The children are now "ecoarnigos."
.A R POLLU-IO
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HEALTH
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TINUING
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FERENCE MOVES
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HEALTHY HOMES
11
12
ment=and how devastatingly the environment
causes, said Carlos Mata, a professor at Costa
Rica's Technological Institute and director of
of San José, The valley provides hydroelectric
the ecoamigos programo
Mata, an environmental health scientist, becarne interested in working ";ith children while
power and water to the urban areas surrounding
he was doing graduate work in the Department
San José, It also provides a living for many
ofEnvironrnental
coffee farmers. The big growers have plantations on the valley floor, while smaller farmers
have cleared native vegetacion frorn the hillsides
Sciences. He spent a year in Seattle on a grant
thraugh the International Scholars program
and planted their beans.
Newspaper reports implicate landuse
decisions in the landslides. The Ministry of
Atmosphere.and Energy had raised concerns
,
dren have becorne more concerned and active,
looking for connections with environmental
province, southeast of the Costa Rican capital
PUBLIC POLICY
PEOPLE & PLACES
They
are learning how people can affect the environcan affect people.
Orosi lies in a lush valley in Cartago
CL'CE,
AGRICULTURE,
up water saturated the soil, A national cornmis-
mountain near their town, destroying 23 home;
H
G
the previous year about residencial construction
that dumped c1eared trees into a gorge; backed-
August 2002, a landslide thundered down the
1
GOl.
LIFE'S LE550NS
,
and Occupational Health
(see page 3)0
He and otber University ofWashington
(UW) graduate students took a Tox-in-a-Box'"
resource kit to Seattle-area schools to teach scierice concepts. The kit includes activities, slides,
E( O A M '1G O 5: L EA RN I N'6 FRO M II FE'5 L E5 5 O N 5
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.continued
A puppet show acts out a f~rest fire in the
national park, and isfollowed by a small;group dis- '
cussion. Mata rnight mix up a toxic soup from his .
Tox-in-a-Box'Y kit, and let the students find out how
difficult itcan he to clean up. "The 'students are ver/
, conscious of the environment," he said ..
Another goal is to link the edúcational topics to ;
tradicional games of the community. Mata teáches hi~
curriculum in English to third grader~ inthe public
,school (Escuela Orosi), and il1English and Spanish
to sec?nd graders in the town's priva te school (Jardin~
del Valle or Garden of the Valle)').
COMMUNITY
5UPPORT.
The edueational program adds value to the cornmunity, Mata said. "By the end of the year yóu are an ,
.
ecofriend-e-you
have, ~
a commitrnent to the environ-.
.
ment and to public health." A local hotel and restau-:
rant provided ecoamigos Tshirts to the children.
'The program has drawn other support from with-
Carlos Mata
in and withont the cornmünity. Mata met a member
, teaches
traditional
games to ; , to 3, 4.to
cbildren in
Otosi, a town
that takes
pride in its
church. Built
of the local Rotary club, who recruited students from
,
Kalamazoó College in Michigan arí'd yolunteers frorri
"
and dernónsirations for four grade levels: kindergarten
6; 7 to 9, and
10 to 12. In Novernber 2002,
.intemational scholars frorn the University qfWashington brought a Tox~in-a-BoxTMkit to Mata, who
had sirice returned to Costa Rica,
'
~
,--
The science experiments interested the children
in Orosi, but' not as much as the immediate lessons
that their valley could teach. For those, Mata reached
..• '"
.
.
',beyond his box and into the community and its.'
as far as Japan. A former velunteer from Japan sent
money for a graduation party,
Mata also recruited his own students frorn the
Technological Institute. Th~y get fieldwork credits
for a class in ecology and environmental issues.. '.
At an annual cornmunityfair in August, ecoamigos
from the past two years will paint a mural. Thisway,
'the community can
see what the, students are doing.
,
,
in 1743,,it:
cult~lfe, Elders had told him that the Y9Ungpeople
is tbe oldest
have lost touch with the old traditions afi? the ,';ays
f D U ( A T ION A L EN R I H M EN T
ofthe land:
Lic Edwin Leiva Arneto, principal of the Escuela
church still in
us« In
Costa Rica.
Mata took the opportunity to work in the cornmunity. He introduced the before-and-after-school
c
e
Oro si, says the program allows him' to incIude topics
such as water pollütion prevention and reforestation
. inhis curriculum. Costa Rica's ministry of education
eco amigos programo .Through interactive exercises
students Iearn, for example, how the coffee trees and ' ,has asked principal s to include these topics, but it is
difficult to fit them into the regular curriculum. The
cornmercial forests have replaced native trees, driving
away wildlife. "Gur birds don'~ kno~ these tree~,-"he
said.
A nearby national park gives stlidents a glimpse
school's science curriculum'is geared to standardized
tests, and allows Iittle leéway for'e~richment.
into an unspoiled valIey. It has more ~an 45 differ-
. The education ministry also requires programs
ent species of mammals including kinkajous, tapirs,
to be dynamic and participatory, "Because this pro-
and monkeys, and 260 kinds of birds, including thé
gramis ouiside the regular school schedule, it gives
mysterious quetzal.
more time for games related to the environment."
"
He supports the ecoamigos curriculum beca use it.is
·situated in out community ... Unfortunately, Orosi
has problems with both (water pollution and deforestation)," he said through a translator. "The landslides
have incr~ased awareness of these two problerns,
.
especiaJiy reforestation, and it is a good fit with our
coromunity."
Leiva has seen attitude changes in adults since the
program started in the elementary schooJ. People in
Orosi seern more aware of environmental and pubJic
health issues than those in other parts of Costa .Rica,
Carlos Mata and the Technological
Steep híllsides
through the Intemational Scholars .
Some have been
in Occupational and E~vironmental
disturbed by
following what the water and electric company do
witb.more interest." Fo; example, he said, they a-re
transmission
FOR MORE
infrastructure, and
INFORMAilON
by coffee growing.
Tox-in-a-Box'>' flier arid order forro:
http:// depts.washington.edu/ceeh/Outreach/k12
International Scholars program
-hupi/Zdeptssaashington.edu/isoeb/
towers and other
formsof
is coroing slowly, but it is corning."
.html
are partners with our department
surround Orosi.
he said. "The cornmunity is more concerned, and is
now demanding reforestation prograros. "Change
Institute in Cartago, Costa Rica,
Health. The program is funded
through the Fogarty Intemational
Center of the US National Institutes ofHealth (NIH), the National
Institute for Occupational Safety
&
Health (NIOSH), and the National
Instirute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS).
The program provides training
in occupational and environmental
health to scientists and 'health pro-
Carlos Mata camata@itcr.ac.cr
fessionals from Vietnam, Thailand,
Nación, September 2, 2002. Desastre:
Riesgo en Orosi fue advertido
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The
focus is on r~search projects that
(Disaster: Orosi risk was wamed)
address high-priority problems in
these countries. For example, Mata
is researching occupational hazards
of fumiture makers in cottage
industries in rural Costa Rica.
.In addition to the TechnoJogical
Institute, the partner institutions
are the Central American Institute
for Studies on Toxic Substances in
Costa Rica, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, the
Regional Center for Excellence in
Occupational Health and Safety at
Burapha University in ThaiJand,
and the NationaJ Institute of Occupational and EnvironmentaJ Health
in Vietnam.
On pages 4-5, we describe the
work with our Vietnam ese partners.