Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition l preventionisthecure.org l ribbet.org l hbcac.org
In This Issue
Social Media
Sponsors
Lend A Helping Hand
Youtube Video
Bowling Event
Golf Event
Rotary Event
Thank you to partners
NIEHS 50th Anniversary
Students & Scientists 
Desi Kirina
Erin Morrisroe
Jordan Roiland
Karthi Mayilvahanan
 A SPECIAL THANK YOU....
goes out to Edge Electronics for another fun and successful Golf Outing event! Our long time partnership and friendship has been so fruitful and we are grateful to all who come down to support HBCAC! 

Sign up for our BOWLING EVENT!
Celebrating our partners this October!
HBCAC has been out and about sharing our educational information with our business partners! Jack Berleth & Sons is one of these outstanding Huntington partners with whom we have a long term relationship! Our materials get distributed to their employees to encourage them and their families to lead healthier lives.

SAVE THE DATE

The Rotary Club of 
Huntington  is hosting 
an annual luncheon
To benefit HBCAC!
 
When?
Tuesday, November 1, 2016  12:00 Noon

Where?  Prime
117 North New York Ave
Huntington Village
 
RSVP to  Robert Bishop 
at 631.921.6912 
Thank you to our sponsors!
 
 

 


Lend A 
Helping Hand

...continues to help those fighting Breast Cancer
HBCAC continues to offer a program of services for Huntington town residents diagnosed with breast cancer. Services we offer through this program include:
  • Food and medical transportation assistance
  • Support group resources & professional resource guides
  • Emergency BC medication & surgical dressings
  • Lymphedema compression garments
  • Housecleaning services, stress-reduction (massage, yoga, etc)
 So if you - or any Huntington resident you know - could use a "helping hand", be sure to contact us today. 
Call us at: 631-547-1518 or email:  friends@hbcac.org.

We have helped a numerous amount of Long Island women and their families to cope with the challenges that breast cancer brings. One of the first problems people face is an uncertain test from a doctor. Our office has done a wonderful job helping people to handle the situation and become proactive.
What's next?
educational outreach is what we do best, check out the next issue for highlights of our fall outreaches and adventures!!!

What have we 
been up to?
One of our most recent projects is our  FISHful Thinking video on youtube! Created with our staff and student interns, it is a fun and educational video on the pros and cons of eating fish. We provide the facts so that you can make smart choices for yourself and your families. This video accompanies a handheld brochure, presentations we do throughout the community, and information on our website, preventionisthecure.org!

Celebrating 50 years of the NIEHS
 We are a proud Partner of the NIEHS, working with outstanding researchers and staying up to date with current science! With  50 Years of progress, the NIEHS celebrates as the world's premier environmental health research organization. Research, translation and communication remain a high priority.  The image below is from the annual Partners meeting at NIH, where leaders and members get together to discuss environmental health at the end of each year following monthly conferences on key topics.


Students & Scientists
HBCAC is proud to have once again sponsored students this summer to work with high science institutions. This year, we had students work at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Stony Brook  University. We were also recruited office interns who help us translate the science and get the word out in the community. We look forward to continue working with the students throughout the year to bring their new information into the community. These students thrive and are bound to do great things! We are sure next year will be even more successful, as we continue to expand our programs and build our partnerships with the local school districts. These districts in Huntington, South Huntington, Northport, and Commack. Read below to find out about our student experiences!! Find out more on our website...preventionisthecure.org
Desi Kirina
While interning at Mount Sinai, I have gained more knowledge about Environmental Health than most high school students would have been able to gain in their very own classrooms, and that's a problem. So the question I have set out to answer is; how do I educate my peer group about Environmental Health, and what exactly do I tell them?
The category of Environmental Health is a giant umbrella, containing many specific topics underneath.  Personal care products is the topic that I focused on the most at Mount Sinai since it affects everyone in my peer group . It is important that I teach my peer group about the dangers that lie behind the drug fact labels. On average, teenagers use 17 personal care products daily, while adults only use 12. 
 I needed to establish a platform that would reach as much of my peer group as possible.  However, unless it is for a school project, students are unlikely to spend their free time reading up on research papers. They are on the other hand, likely to send their free time scrolling through social media. I decided that the various applications technology has to offer would be incredibly convenient in conveying condensed information and key points.  
Jordan and I are currently designing video segments that will be shared on different social media platforms. Throughout the year I will also be creating social media posts and presenting at different schools and outreaches, sharing my information regarding environmental health. Although my commutes to the Mount Sinai Hospital have concluded, my work isn't over yet. This summer of research has greatly enriched me and driven me to pursue many more projects throughout the school year and beyond. 
Erin Morrisroe
Experience was my one major goal for this summer internship, and my only real expectation for this summer. While I definitely gained experience from this position I also gained so much more. I developed a greater confidence in myself, and I also gained a greater appreciation for the field of research. I learned science is not always black and white like it is portrayed in the classroom. I was taught a study or experiment is just the final piece of a research project, and most of the research is performed before the study begins. I learned the behind the scenes aspects of research as well. Mainly, how to write a proposal and find appropriate sample sizes and means of measuring data. 
            
       It is  rigorous scientific research that provides the regulatory institutes the information necessary to act ensuring public health is it compromised. When I started researching synthetic musks I knew very little about them and did not think synthetic musks research was worthwhile or relevant to my life. I believed synthetic musk was found solely in expensive perfumes, a product that I did not use. However, I found out synthetic musks are contained in almost every personal care product as one of the chemical components of fragrance. I was unnerved by this discovery because if chemical compounds I have never heard of were in 90% of all my personal care products, what other harsh chemicals are present in my products as well?  We were able to write a comprehensive project proposal, and we hope to execute the experiment in the upcoming school year. 
Jordan Roiland
I have been very fortunate to be able to work with HBCAC and Mount Sinai Hospital this summer, to do research on endocrine disrupting chemicals. But from the first introduction, I knew this would be different. Shaking hands to introduce myself, it is when Ms. Karen Miller "air-fived" me across the table, I knew HBCAC's culture was perfect. 
After touring the campus (Mount Sinai is very large) we started to formulate our game plan for this internship. This was exciting, being integrated as a member of the "team" from day one.  With the information Dr. Evans provided, we set out on research on endocrine disruptors. These, though a new topic to me, are prevalent in our everyday lives.  Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that usually mimic hormones, or block the receptors of hormones. Most commonly xenoestrogens, or "estrogen-like," these chemicals affect our bodies in many harmful way. Though I had always been told to be wary of unpronounceable chemicals, I never really knew their harm. So I set out and created a survey. Using this survey, and assistance from Dr. Evans and Megan, Desi and I focused our research on Triclosan and personal care products. Triclosan is an antibacterial found in many products, ranging from soap and toothpaste, to even school supplies. Triclosan use in soap has been shown by the FDA to have no significant effect as compared to washing hands with regular soap. Endocrine disruptor-free versions of products are often as effective as their dangerous counterparts. Desi and I set out to create materials which advertised this and encouraged consumers to "shop smart."
Karthi Mayilvahanan
I started my journey at Stony Brook with the intentions of learning about Artificial Turf Fields and why they gave many goalkeepers cancer. It was there that I met my partner Erin. We worked under the supervision of Dr. Meliker. Erin and I first spent week after week understanding the compounds that were thought to be dangerous in turf fields.  So, I looked into a viable method to test for the compound in athletes. As I looked into more chemicals, I realized they were either not strong enough to cause cancer or abundant enough to have such a drastic effect. So, my partner Erin and I decided that there may have been other chemicals in the turf that haven't been researched enough that may have caused cancer. Or, it may have been a mixture of all the chemicals causing a certain reaction. Unfortunately, we didn't have the resources or time to answer this. 
Moving forward, we decided to take up a new project. This new project was about synthetic musks and how they may be dangerous to humans at certain doses. A synthetic musk is a compound used to produce a scent. I also found out that polycyclic musks were the most prevalent in today's world in personal care products, even there hasn't been enough research into their effects on humans. What we discovered was horrible. Preliminary research into its effects showed that it could either decrease the effects of estrogen or increase it based on the estrogen receptor it attacked. As if that wasn't bad enough, it also inhibited the cellular xenobiotic defense system in mussels. The xenobiotic defense system is responsible for removing everyday toxins from our body. So, if the musks inhibited the system, it would increase the potency of other chemicals.  So, we decided to design an experiment doing just that.  Unfortunately, we were unable to find a lab to do that due to the high risk of contamination in the lab. So, this project never went into effect. Despite frustrations our research still shows that there needs to be further testing of these compounds. Even though we are still unsure of absorption rates in humans, people should still be cautious of what is in their personal care products, because synthetic musks may be dangerous at certain doses.
Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition | | friends@hbcac.org 
900 Walt Whitman Rd., LL12
Melville, NY 11747