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U.S. EPA Aging Initiative List Serve February 2010
- Announcements
- News, Research, Reports and Presentations
- New Resources and Opportunities
- Building Healthy Communities
- Pharmaceuticals in the Environment
- Intergenerational Activities
- EPA Funding Opportunities
- Other Funding Opportunities
- Public Comments Requested
- 2010 Calendar of Events & Meetings and Call for Abstracts
I. Announcements
EPA Recognizes Four Communities for Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging
The awards program recognizes outstanding community strategies and planning that support active aging and smart growth.
The Achievement Award, the top award, recognizes communities for overall excellence in building healthy communities for active aging. This year's recipients are the Town of Cary, N.C., and Martinsville/Henry County, Va.
The Commitment Award recognizes communities that have developed and begun to initiate a specific plan to implement smart growth and active aging principles. This year's recipients are the City of Gaithersburg, Md., for the Upcounty Senior Center and the County of San Mateo, Calif., for the Half Moon Bay Senior Campus Plan.
Applications for 4th annual Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging the 2010 are due July 17, 2010.
More information: http://www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/awards
The 2009 Achievement Award Winners
The Town of Cary, North Carolina
The Town of Cary is recognized for its many achievements including major investments to preserve 2,300 acres of open space and 22 parks. They created 174 miles of biking and walking trails connecting greenways with residential neighborhoods. The Town of Cary created "activity centers" which are the building blocks for its long-term planning. These centers are physically and aesthetically unified concentrating mixed use development in a pedestrian-friendly fashion. Cary has also encouraged active aging on a community-wide basis by offering hundreds of fitness and wellness courses designed by and for older adults.
Martinsville/Henry County, Virginia Coalition for Health and Wellness for Activate MHC
The Martinsville-Henry County Coalition for Health and Wellness received the award for its leadership in adopting active aging programming and implementing smart growth policies. The coalition made strides to increase participation in physical activities and advocated for additional active living resources. Through the Activate initiative community walkabouts have led to assessing and improving the walking and biking opportunities and created the first bike lane and pedestrian safety lights. Activate publishes an annual physical activity guide and tool kit with information on recreation programs and physical activity programming and held the first annual healthy community challenge. In 2009, the County's comprehensive plan included a framework that supports a smart growth vision.
The 2009 Commitment Award Winners
City of Gaithersburg, MD for the Gaithersburg Upcounty Senior Center
The city of Gaithersburg was selected for it efforts to improve the quality of life of its older residents. The Upcounty Senior Center helps older people to get involved in fitness activities that help them maintain active lives. Gaithersburg plans to relocate the senior center to a larger facility within walking distance of public transit. It also has overseen the development of several mixed use developments with senior living facilities including the Kentlands, an award winning smart growth community.
County of San Mateo, CA for the Half Moon Bay Senior Campus Plan.
San Mateo County is being recognized for its Half Moon Bay Senior campus plan that will provide a much needed expansion of services for older adults. The plan integrates affordable housing with a network of pedestrian walkways and open space intended for structured and unstructured activities. One special feature of the walkways is the raised pavement where paths cross streets signaling to motorists to yield to pedestrians.
Please check EPA's Aging web site (http://www.epa.gov/aging/) for the new awards booklet that will be posted soon.
Participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count and Help Birds
The 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) (http://www.audubon.org/gbbc) 
will be held from February 12 - 15th. This annual four-day event engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent and in Hawaii.
Each checklist submitted by these "citizen scientists" helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/) and the National Audubon Society (http://www.audubon.org/) learn more about how the birds are doing-and how to protect them and the environment we share. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent's largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.
Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at http://www.birdcount.org.
Bird populations are always shifting and changing. For example, 2009 GBBC data highlighted a huge southern invasion of Pine Siskins across much of the eastern United States. Participants counted 279,469 Pine Siskins on 18,528 checklists, as compared to the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005. Failure of seed crops farther north caused these birds to move south to find their favorite food.
Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
Counting birds as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count can also help build our understanding of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) (http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/) , sites significant for the conservation of birds. Birdwatchers should consider visiting Important Bird Areas during the GBBC weekend and recording the birds at these critically important sites. Counting birds in Important Bird Areas will help the conservation community better understand how the birds are using these areas. GBBC data can inform habitat management decisions and what conservation actions may be needed to better protect and conserve the site. To find an Important Bird Area in your state please visit http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/ and click on your state.
On the http://www.birdcount.org website, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during the count. The site has tips to help identify birds and special materials for educators. Participants may also enter the GBBC photo contest by uploading images taken during the count. Many images will be featured in the GBBC website's photo gallery (http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/gallery) . All participants are entered in a drawing for prizes that include bird feeders, binoculars, books, CDs, and many other great birding products. For more information about the GBBC, visit http://www.birdcount.org. Or contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at (800) 843-2473 or (outside the U.S., call (607) 254-2473) or GBBC at Cornell University (gbbc@cornell.edu), or Audubon at Citizen Science at the Audubon Society (citizenscience@audubon.org) or (202) 861-2242 ext 3050.
Follow the GBBC and IBAs on Twitter
In the weeks leading up to the Great Backyard Bird Count, and during the event, consider tweeting on Twitter about what you're doing to get ready, and what kinds of birds you're seeing. Just add this "hashtag" to your message: #gbbc (make sure the letters are lower-case). When you add that tag, tweets about GBBC will show up in a special widget on the GBBC home page so we can all share! You can also Important Bird Area related news by following @AudubonIBAs (http://twitter.com/AudubonIBAs). If you don't have a Twitter account, it's free and easy to sign up at http://twitter.com/.
Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program
This national program seeks to provide professionals in health and aging with the experience and skills necessary to make a positive contribution to the development and implementation of health policies that affect older Americans. The program offers two different tracks: (1) a residential track that includes a nine-to-12-month placement in Washington, D.C. or at a state agency (as a legislative assistant in Congress, a professional staff member in an executive agency or in a policy organization); and (2) a non-residential track that includes a health policy project and brief placement(s) throughout the year at relevant sites. Core program components focused on career development and professional enrichment are provided for fellows in both tracks.
This unique professional fellowship opportunity is supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and directed by Harold Alan Pincus, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Health Policy and Management at Columbia University (in collaboration with the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship Program). The application deadline for the 2009-2010 fellowship year is April 15, 2010. For further information, please visit our website at http://www.healthandagingpolicy.org
II. News, Research, Reports and Presentations
Association of Biomarkers of Systemic Inflammation with Organic Components and Source Tracers in Quasi-Ultrafine Particles
Delfino RJ, Staimer N, Tjoa T, Arhami M, Polidori A, Gillen DL, et al. 2010..
Association of Biomarkers of Systemic Inflammation with Organic Components and Source Tracers in Quasi-Ultrafine Particles.
Environ Health Perspects
Researchers examined air pollutant components and their sources responsible for associations between particle mass concentrations and human cardiovascular outcomes. They had earlier found associations of circulating biomarkers of inflammation with mass concentrations of quasi-ultrafine particles<0.25 ?m in diameter (PM0.25) in a panel cohort study of 60 elderly subjects with coronary artery disease living in the Los Angeles basin. In this study they reassessed biomarker associations with PM0.25 using new particle composition data.
They found indoor and outdoor PAH (low, medium and high molecular weight PAH), followed by hopanes (vehicle emissions tracer), were positively associated with biomarkers, but other organic components and transition metals were not. The concluded traffic emission sources of organic chemicals represented by PAH are associated with increased systemic inflammation and explain associations with quasi-ultrafine particle mass.
http://ehsehplp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.0901407#abstract0
Federal Interagency Forum on Aging Related Statistics—Aging Forum Report
Data Sources of the Impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis on the Economic Well-being of Older Americans
This new report summarizes the availability of data sponsored by federal agencies that measure the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the economic well-being of the population 55 and older. Data sets are available to researchers on a variety of topics including income and poverty, pensions, homeownership, reverse mortgages, financial holdings, retirement behaviors and social security, household spending, and retirement expectations and attitudes. http://www.agingstats.gov/agingstatsdotnet/main_site/docs/DSOA_Aging_Brief.pdf
III. New Resources and Opportunities
Our Planet, Our Stuff, Our Choice Video Competition
The stuff you use every day affects your environment, your community, and your planet. EPA is sponsoring a video competition to raise awareness of the connection between the environment and the "stuff" people use, consume, recycle, and throw away. We need your help in creating videos that will inspire community involvement, spread information and lead to action. Your passion, your creativity, and your ideas can make a difference. After all, it's our stuff, our planet, our choice. http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/wycd/video.htm
Purpose Prize
The Purpose Prize provides ten awards of up to $100,000 to innovators in encore careers' those over 60 years of age—who are creating new ways to solve our most pressing social issues from health care to the environment, poverty to education. The Purpose Prize Program is directed by Civic Ventures and is now in its fifth year. Nominations, including self-nominations, are due March 5, 2010 and can be submitted at http://www.encore.org/prize
IV. Building Healthy Communities
There are now two new supporters of the Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Grantmakers in Aging and the American Planning Association. All of the supporters can be found on the website at http://www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/supporters.htm
If your organization would like to join this impressive and growing list of supporters please contact Kathy Sykes at sykes.kathy@epa.gov
National Award for Smart Growth Achievement
Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This competition is open to public- and private-sector entities that have successfully used smart growth principles to improve communities environmentally, socially, and economically. The application period is open from February 8, 2010 to April 5, 2010. Up to five awards will be given in the following categories:
- Programs, Policies, and Regulations
- Smart Growth and Green Building
- Civic Places
- Rural Smart Growth
- Overall Excellence
Eligible candidates are invited to submit an application for the 2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement using the official award guidelines and entry rules (DOC).
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm#2010-nasga
Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging
Applications for 4th annual Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging the 2010 are due July 17, 2010. For more information: http://www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/awards
V. Pharmaceuticals in the Environment
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Pharmaceutical Waste Management: A Brief Federal Overview
If you are interested in pharmaceutical waste management you might find these power point slides of interest. They provide a brief federal overview of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as it relates to pharmaceutical waste.
RCRA and Pharmaceutical Waste Management: A Brief Federal Overview
Lisa Lauer, US EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
VI. Intergenerational Activities
The Aging Initiative List Serve will feature a new section of the monthly listserve that will highlight intergenerational projects and have invited stories that are written by the participants. These short excerpts will be written by an elder, a youth or by an intergenerational team. This new section will e called "In their Own Words." If you are involved in an intergenerational environmental project and want to share this with the list serve, please send an email to aging.info@epa.gov
In their Own Words
Intergenerational
Last May, The Intergenerational School in Cleveland, Ohio brought two of our classrooms to a local nature reserve. There, we met 12 residents of a local assisted living home with whom our students have partnered with on various intergenerational activities over the past several years, from craft-making, to reading, to oral history interviews. On this visit to the nature center, we had our students form intergenerational learning clusters with their older partners, and together they walked (or were wheeled) along the trails that wend through the protected forest area in our community. Along the way, the groups learned about the legacy of Rachel Carson, whose quotes have been engraved in wooden planks along the trail.
The goal of this community-based partnership was to have every person — whether they were age 5 or age 95 — experience a sense of wonder for our shared local ecology. In the video that was fortunate enough to be honored in the EPA's Rachel Carson competition, you can see dozens of rich photographs of the intergenerational partnerships, interspersed by journal entries that each participant created as they walked through and experienced nature. Due to the enormous success of this partnership, we will be having our students join elders for monthly visits to the nature center beginning in February 2010. Thank you EPA for helping us make our vision a reality! http://www.tisonline.org
Danny George
Assistant Professor
Department of Humanities
Penn State College of Medicine
VII. EPA Funding Opportunities
Activities that Advance Methane Recovery and Use as a Clean Energy Source
This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits proposals for investigation, survey, study, training, and demonstration projects (eligible projects) that advance international near-term, cost-effective methane recovery and use as a clean energy source, and support the goals of the Methane to Markets Partnership. This funding opportunity is only for international activities in support of the Methane to Markets Partnership.
Deadline: April 15, 2010. Read more...
VIII. Other Funding Opportunities
Geographic and Contextual Influences on Energy Balance-Related Health Behaviors (R01)
This announcement invites applications for investigator-initiated projects concerned with the influence of the built environment, "contextual" environment (where people live, work and play), and health-related behavior on the individual's energy balance and, therefore, on health. There is clear evidence of a strong association between diet, exercise, body weight (i.e. the "energy balance") and a variety of chronic ("metabolic") diseases. A number of environmental features can affect energy balance such as density, diversity, design and accessibility of buildings. Socioeconomic status of residents, amenities such as transportation, accessible parks and pathways for walking and cycling - all of those and others can influence energy balance-related behavior. Studies are needed to evaluate all of those factors.
Deadline: June 5, 2010. Read more...
Wider Opportunities for Women Elder Economic Security Initiative™ Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) is pleased to announce the release of our Request for Proposals for the Elder Economic Security Initiative tm (Initiative). The Initiative's core components include: coalition building, research, advocacy, education, and outreach. Underpinning these national, state and community efforts is the Elder Economic Security Standard tm Index (Elder Index), a comprehensive geographically-based measure of income adequacy, developed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston (GI UMASS) and WOW. WOW seeks lead state organizations (LSOs) with whom to launch and implement the Initiative.
In collaboration with WOW, these LSOs will:
*Build a diverse statewide coalition;
*Provide input into the tabulation of the state Elder Index;
*Develop a statewide policy agenda to promote elder economic security; and
*Coordinate the launch and implementation of their state's Initiative.
To date, WOW has partnerships with non-profit organizations and state agencies in twelve states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and West Virginia. Applications will not be accepted from these states. If you are interested in becoming involved with the Initiative in these states, please contact WOW. Please forward this announcement widely! Applications will be due Friday, March 5, 2010. For additional information, contact Stacy Sanders, Associate Director, at ssanders@wowonline.org.
Deadline: March 5, 2010 Read more...
NSF - Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities
The National Science Foundation invites research proposals that will lead to new technology, devices or software that will benefit persons with disabilities. Research my be directed toward the characterization, restoration, and/or substitution of human functional abilities or cognition, or the interaction of persons with disabilities and their environment. Emphasis is placed on significant advancement of fundamental engineering and scientific knowledge rather than on incremental improvements.
Application due dates: Full proposal windows, March 3, 2010 & August 15, September 23, 2010. Read more...
AHRQ - Active Aging: Supporting Individuals and Enhancing Community-based Care through Health Information Technology
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHQR) is requesting applications from organizations that propose to develop specialized centers for the purpose of (a) utilizing communication and information based technologies to improve and expand health-related services available to older adults, and (b) developing effective strategies to translate research advances into practice efficiently. Research results are intended to enhance the independence and functional capabilities of older adults through development of tools, production of demonstration projects, and construction of educational programs.
Deadline: March 25, 2010. Read more...
AHRQ Patient Safety-Related Funding Opportunities Improving Patient Safety through Simulation Research (R18): AHRQ announces the availability of grants to develop, test, and evaluate the impact of various simulation approaches for the purpose of improving the safe delivery of health care. The projects funded under this funding opportunity announcement will inform providers, health educators, payers, policy makers, patients, the public, and AHRQ about the effective use of simulation in improving patient safety.
Application Due Date: March 26, 2010. Read more...
Prevention and Management of Healthcare Associated Infections (R18): The purpose of this funding opportunity is to fund extramural health services research, demonstration, dissemination, and evaluation grants that propose to prevent and more effectively manage health care associated infections. This funding opportunity sets a multi-year research framework, based on the distillation of existing, peer-reviewed research, case studies, the Department of Health and Human Services' 2009 National Action Plan on Healthcare-associated Infections, and qualitative information resulting from a series of listening sessions that occurred in selected cities across the United States in 2009.
Application Due Date: March 29, 2010. Read more...
Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Grants (P30)
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences announces the availability of Core Center Grants (P30) that are intended to provide core resources and shared facilities to groups of investigators located in a single institution or in several cooperating institutions. In addition, the Core center grant mechanism is designed to promote cooperation and collaboration among groups of established researchers who are independently conducting research of high quality that is related to the effects of environmental factors on human health. The Center is also expected to foster training and mentoring of young scientists, junior faculty, and clinician-scientists in the environmental health sciences in order to build careers in environmental health.
Deadline: March 31, 2010. Read more...
NIH - Critical Illness and Injury in Aging
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are requesting research grant applications that are focused on mechanisms and management of critical illness and injury (including trauma and neurotrauma) in aging. The type of investigation may be mechanistic, observational or interventional. Proposals that utilize existing datasets, such as from large observational studies or clinical trials, are acceptable. Animal studies are appropriate in cases where human studies are not feasible.
Deadline: June 5 & October 5, 2010. Read more...
NIMH Developing Centers for Intervention and/or Services Research
The National Institute of Mental Health invites research grant applications related to the missions of the Division of Services and Intervention Research and the NIMH Geriatrics Research Branch. The latter supports intervention research relevant to older adults. The purpose of the grants is to provide infrastructure support for groups of investigators that will allow expansion of their intervention and/or services research. The scope of this offering is broad and meant to support investigators who are involved in treatment, prevention and/or services research.
Deadline: June 24, 2010. Read more...
IX. Public Comments Requested
Preliminary 2010 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan
EPA has published in the Federal Register, and is requesting comment on, a preliminary plan for reviewing effluent guidelines, which are regulations that improve water quality by controlling discharges from industrial sources. EPA publishes a final Effluent Guidelines Plan every even year as is required by Section 304(m) of the Clean Water Act. Prior to publishing the final Plan, EPA must publish a preliminary Plan and take public comment.
Deadline: February 26, 2010. Read more...
Proposed Revisions to National Standards for Ground-Level Ozone
January 6, 2010 - The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to strengthen the national ambient air quality standards for ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone is a primary component of smog. The proposed revisions are based on scientific evidence about ozone and its effects on people and sensitive trees and plants. EPA will accept comments for 60 days following publication of the proposal in the Federal Register. http://www.epa.gov/air/ozonepollution/actions.html#jan10s
Comments must be received by March 22, 2010
X. 2010 Calendar of Events & Meetings
Calendar 2010
March 2010
Association of Gerontology in Higher Education Annual Meeting
March 4 - 7, 2010
Reno, NV.
http://www.agingconference.org/AiA10/index.cfm
American Society on Aging/National Council on Aging Annual Meeting
March 15-19, 2010.
Chicago, Ill
http://www.agingconference.org/AiA10/index.cfm
April 2010
American Planning Association
April 10-13, 2010.
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.planning.org/conference/index.htm
Earth Day
April 22, 2010
http://www.earthday.net/earthday2010
May 2010
May is Older Americans
http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Press_Room/Observances/oam/archive/archive.aspx
International Federation on Ageing
May 3-6, 2010.
Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.ifa-fiv.org/
American Geriatrics Society
May 12-14, 2010.
Orando, FL
http://www.americangeriatrics.org/news/meeting/2010/call_proposals.shtml
Congress for the New Urbanism Annual Conference
May 19-22, 2010.
Atlanta, GA
http://www.cnu.org/cnu18
2010 National River Rally
May 21-24th
Snowbird, UT
http://www.rivernetwork.org/programs/national-river-rally
Call for Abstracts
Gerontological Society of America (GSA)
The online abstract submission process for GSA's 63rd Annual Meeting is open. Please read all of the instructions provided throughout the online submission process. Please visit http://www.geron.org/abstracts for instructions and a link to the submission form. The submission deadline is March 15, 2010.