Associate Professor Brings Environmental Health Education to Central Asia

Local government officials and healthcare providers participated in pilot training sessions to learn about the risks of environmental exposure and how to mitigate harmful levels of exposure. Dr. Nascarella said the dozens of individuals who attended the training were attentive, appreciative and provided great feedback to improve the final product

“The senior public health and healthcare leadership attended the training, and it set the tone for others,” he said. “The fact that we brought the in-person education to their location played a big role in the success of this work.”

The training included many small but impactful interventions for providers to offer patients on the ways to reduce environmental exposure. For example, peeling vegetables that grow in the ground. Since the heavy metals are present at high levels in the local soil, removing the peel is an effective way to reduce exposure from the food.

The project team also installed air quality sensors that provide real-time data and can inform residents when the air quality is poorest. Prior to that, the nearest sensor was in the country’s capital, nearly 400 miles away.

Dr. Nascarella described the work as an iterative process with input from stakeholders around the world. At MCPHS, students in the Master of Public Health program and the Translating Research in Environmental Assessment to Mitigate Exposures (TREAT ME) course, which Dr. Nascarella teaches, studied the situation in Kyrgyzstan, then proposed new interventions and contributed to the work.

“Many students who took the course learned about these environmental issues for the first time, and they quickly became motivated to learn more and be involved in the solution,” Dr. Nascarella said.

Although the project’s initial phase is concluding, the training and materials continue to have an impact. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is using the work as part of its Children’s Health Collaborative, spreading environmental health awareness and education across Kyrgyzstan.

“With the support of the Ministry of Health, the Kyrgyz State Medical Academy, and other institutions and government agencies, these materials have been distributed across the country,” Dr. Nascarella said. “This could not have been done without the collaboration of the Kyrgyz people.”