Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas Inc. recently announced a new partnership with Texas A&M University School of Public Health to conduct a two-year study of arsenic and other toxic contaminants that occur in residential drinking water within border colonia communities in the Rio Grande Valley.
The event highlighted the importance of a new partnership between Methodist Healthcare Ministries and Texas A&M as they work together to address and potentially reduce health disparities. Exposure to toxic contaminants disproportionately affects underserved and low-resourced populations in Texas border communities that depend on unsafe drinking water sources.
The projects aim to test and capture measurements of existing health risks of exposure to water contaminants. It will develop solutions for how to reduce the risk of exposure for communities near contaminated water. The projects will also collect important data for the community that can help implement the necessary solutions. Furthermore, the partnership aims to train the next generation of citizen scientists while cultivating a love of learning science in South Texas students.
“According to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, in just six Texas counties along the Texas-Mexico border, 38,000 colonia residents do not have access to clean drinking water,” said Jaime Wesolowski, president and CEO of Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas Inc. “Clean and safe water is an essential component to good health. We are proud that through this partnership with Texas A&M, we will be helping these vital communities safeguard their water and health, ensuring they all have an opportunity to thrive.”
Addressing A Fundamental Need
“Through this partnership with Methodist Healthcare Ministries, we are helping Texas take a big step forward ensuring everyone in South Texas has access to a fundamental need for good health: clean and reliable drinking water,” said Greg Hartman, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Texas A&M University.
The Arsenic Surveillance in Border Communities’ Drinking Water project is a study conducting arsenic surveillance in border communities’ drinking water. The main themes are how to increase public awareness of arsenic exposure in local communities; how to identify individuals at risk for arsenic-induced cancers; and providing a prevention intervention to reduce arsenic exposure in border communities.
The primary objectives include evaluating both the burden of arsenic exposure in drinking water, and nutritional status and biomarkers to predict health impacts of chronic arsenic exposure. The project will also assess the impact of an intervention to reduce arsenic exposure in households using tabletop pitchers. The communities in the study will include households within four colonias. The findings will be compared to those from non-colonia areas, with priority focus being in Hidalgo County.
“Arsenic exposure from contaminated drinking water increases the risks of diverse cancers and non-cancer diseases,” said Taehyun Roh, assistant professor at Texas A&M School of Public Health. “Underserved and low-resourced populations relying on unsafe drinking water sources in Texas border communities are disproportionately affected by this. We expect our study will contribute to reducing health disparities in these communities.”
Engaging Citizens
The second Citizen Science project will examine the role of community characteristics, knowledge, and a locally engaged and trained resident population on water security and common resilience in Texas border communities. The primary objectives are to develop/test adapted Citizen Science training materials and create a field team to conduct the work in the community. It will also conduct focus group meetings to identify community-based water policy steps and pilot dissemination of citizen science activities to a second border community to help inform future projects.
The primary community of study is the San Carlos area colonias in Hidalgo County. This is due to strong existing relationships that are vital to developing the project’s proof of concept. There will be a selection of a second border community in consultation with Methodist Healthcare Ministries and other key stakeholders.
“This project seeks to instill a love of science and learning with high school students and community members and provide an in-depth assessment of local needs centered on water quality and public health matters,” said Garett Sansom, research assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. “We are thrilled to be co-learning with our partners to seek long-term solutions to these complex issues.”
Upon project completion in 2024, the findings will help create and advocate for public policy solutions to improve the quality of water in some of the most underdeveloped areas in South Texas. The project is a first step in creating and applying a proof of concept throughout the Texas-Mexico border to improve the lives of these often overlooked communities.