Philadelphia Regional Center for Children's Environmental Health

Chemical regulation in a shifting political landscape
2025-11-05 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Online
In this webinar, Adriana Antezana and Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz of Earthjustice will explore scientific practices in safeguarding the public from toxic chemical exposures. These leading scientific and legal experts will explain risk evaluation and risk management decisions on chemicals such as phthalates, methylene chloride, asbestos, and more.
The webinar will be moderated by Dr. Rashmi Joglekar of UCSF’s Program on Reproductive Health and Environment (PRHE). The discussion is co-hosted by UCSF’s Science Action Network, the Union of Concerned Scientists and CHE.
These conversations will include a variety of opinions and perspectives.

Assessing Childhood Exposure to Toxic Metals During 3-D Printing
2025-11-11 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
Thomas Gluodenis, PhD, Associate Professor, Chemistry & Physics, at Lincoln University of PA, will give a talk on potential, hidden exposures to toxic chemicals that can be found in our communities. Dr. Gluodenis is a PRCCEH member whose research focuses on lead and metal tracing to find the root cause of exposure.
This talk will include a discussion of his PRCCEH Pilot Project, as well as, past and future research into exposure science.
Virtual only. Free and open to all. A zoom link will follow by email after registering below.

Register for this Seminar:

Plastics in the built environment: Considerations related to artificial turf
2025-11-12 12:00 - 13:00 | Online
Many institutions and communities are engaged in decision-making about athletic fields and playground surfacing. Building professionals, planners, and designers often need to assess competing proposals for infrastructure. With increasing awareness of the need to reduce plastic use and pollution globally, it is important to consider the role of the built environment in contributing to the total burden of plastics.
In this webinar, Ryan Johnson will provide an overview of the contribution that buildings and construction make to global plastic consumption. He will highlight the ways in which plastic building materials have been found to affect health and environment throughout their life cycle. Ryan will highlight artificial turf as a case study and present information from Habitable’s Turf Product Guidance. This guidance provides information for building professionals and others. Dr. Winnie Courtene-Jones will discuss the health and environmental implications of macro- and micro-plastics.
This webinar is designed to be useful for those involved in infrastructure planning within municipalities, colleges and universities, and other institutions.
The webinar will be moderated by Dr. Rachel Massey.

PGW LIHEAP DAY
2025-11-12 14:00 - 18:00 | Esperanza Arts Center, 4261 North 5th St, Philadelphia, PA, 19140
Join Philadelphia Gas Works in collaboration Energy Coordinating Agency for our 2024 LIHEAP Kickoff Day. This event will provide on-site assistance to apply for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Income eligible households will be able to apply for up to $1,000 in assistance. This program is open to homeowners and renters. Applicants do not need to be delinquent to apply. Learn more.

Beyond Plastics Webinar: Toxic Chemicals in Plastics
2025-11-12 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
You may have heard about microplastics and nanoplastics infiltrating the human body. Maybe you saw a news article about how there’s roughly the equivalent of a plastic spoon’s worth of micro and nano-plastics in our brains or a headline about microplastics in the human placenta, breast milk, or testicles. Few people realize that plastics are made with chemicals – a lot of them! There are more than sixteen thousand known chemicals added to plastics to give them various qualities – shiny, matte, flexible, hard, heat resistant, etc. Unfortunately, more than a quarter of these chemicals are known to be toxic.
Please join Beyond Plastics, and Ami Zota, ScD of Columbia University and Ryan Babadi, PhD of Toxic-Free Future for a free educational webinar about the toxic chemicals in plastics. Learn which toxic chemicals are used in plastics that are commonly used to make children’s toys, dishes and kitchenware, clothing, food and beverage packaging, building materials, cosmetics, personal care products, and more. We’ll also discuss the negative impacts of these chemicals on our health and environment as well as how you can help protect yourself and your community from them. Register now to save your spot for our November 12 webinar.

Black Maternal Health and Neonatal Equity Conference: Moving Forward
2025-11-17 08:00 - 17:00 | The Study at University CIty, 20 S 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104
Join Once Upon A Preemie, Inc. for a powerful two-day event dedicated to uplifting Black birthing mothers, infants, and families. Day 1 kicks off with our Pre-Conference Party For A Cause: A Party For Preemies Fundraiser—an afternoon of cocktails, dancing, silent auctions, entertainment, and networking in support of our mission. Day 2 features the Black Maternal Health and Neonatal Equity Conference: Moving Forward, bringing together healthcare professionals and parent advocates to elevate health equity, inclusion, and accountability, while centering the lived experiences, and solutions of Black birthing and preemie families in challenging times. This conference is held in partnership with the Perinatal Advisory Council: Leadership, Advocacy, And Consultation (PAC/LAC) and offers continuing education credits for healthcare professionals.

Indoor Air Quality and Children’s Health
2025-11-18 12:00 - 13:00 | Online
The first part of the webinar will include an overview of the major types of air pollutants commonly found in indoor environments, and their primary sources. It will examine the factors affecting indoor air quality and explore effective control measures to reduce indoor air pollutant levels. It will also review current scientific literature on the association between indoor air quality and children’s health. In the second part of the webinar, the American Lung Association will share key findings from a national survey of healthcare professionals on indoor air pollution, introducing new clinical tools and resources providers can immediately use to assess and educate patients on this critical topic. The webinar will also feature other relevant Lung Association IAQ programs, including the Clean Air School Challenge.

Kabindra Shakya, PhD, is an environmental scientist and Associate Professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Geography and the Environment at Villanova University. Member of PRCCEH.
Molly Ryan, MPH, is a dedicated public health professional who drives nationwide indoor air quality (IAQ) initiatives at the American Lung Association.

To learn more and to register, click here.
Webinar participants who complete the evaluation and obtain an 80% or higher on the course post-test will receive a certificate for 1 nursing contact hour.

Taking the Lead on Lead: Lessons from a Telemedicine-Based Clinic for the Prevention of Childhood Lead Poisoning
2025-11-19 08:00 - 09:00 | Online
Join the Philadelphia Regional Center for Children’s Environmental Health for our final seminar of the year. Noah Buncher, DO, Pediatrician at the CHOP South Philadelphia Clinic, will give a presentation on his work doing telemedicine clinic appointments with patients to prevent childhood lead poisoning.
Dr. Buncher is the former medical director of the Lead Clinic at Boston Medical Center and former pediatric environmental health specialist at the Region 1 New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit.
Dr. Buncher’s research focuses on developing novel tools and evidence-based strategies for the early detection and prevention of childhood lead poisoning. By leveraging the technology of telemedicine, his current work aims to create effective and sustainable primary lead exposure prevention interventions for high-risk children and families by performing remote lead inspections of the home and connecting families to appropriate community resources. His past research includes work on validating non-invasive ways of lead biomonitoring, such as through employing XRF technology to analyze toenail clippings. He has also conducted Quality Improvement studies aimed at improving pediatrician’s adherence to clinical lead guidelines.

Dr. Buncher received a PRCCEH Pilot Project to implement his telemedicine approach in Philadelphia.
Registration is required. This is a Zoom only event – a link will be emailed after registration.

Register for this Seminar:

EDCs & Female Reproductive Health: A growing health concern
2025-11-20 12:00 - 13:00 | Online
In this EDC Strategies Partnership webinar, Dr. Anne-Simone Parent, a researcher from the MERLON project, will present the findings from their recent review paper, “Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and female reproductive health: A growing concern.“ This highlights how EDCs impact the development of female reproductive disorders and the challenges behind proving the causality between exposure and human disease manifestation. The female reproductive disorders include abnormal puberty, impaired fertility, premature menopause or polycystic ovarian syndrome. The webinar will be moderated by Génon Jensen, Executive Director, Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL).
About MERLON: The MERLON project – an EU funded research initiative, brings together world-leading experts from 12 partner institutions across Europe to develop and improve tools to better identify and ultimately regulate harmful endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). It focuses on associations between exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals and the impaired sexual development and reproductive functions in humans. It also works on the transition to applying new approach methodologies (NAMs), a new paradigm of chemical testing that aims to reduce our reliance on animals for toxicity testing.

Beyond Silos: Why Community Engagement is Vital to Redefining Health, Environment, and Resilience
2025-11-24 20:30 - 22:00 | Online
Co-hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the seminar will feature Dr Nason Tan, NAM-HKU Fellow in Global Health Leadership for the 2023/24 cohort, project conducted as part of his global health leadership fellowship. He will discuss authentic and meaningful community engagement, emphasizing the community as a full partner in advancing public health.
Confronting complex health threats—from climate impacts to non-communicable diseases—requires a fundamental transformation beyond traditional, siloed approaches where science, policy, and community engagement operate in parallel. This presentation posits that authentic community engagement is the critical catalyst redefining this landscape, forging integrated solutions that simultaneously advance health, equity, and social resilience. We demonstrate how co-production of knowledge, exemplified by community-led initiatives, transforms data into actionable evidence and policy change, while place-based initiatives showcase how community stewardship builds the adaptive social fabric essential for resilience. Moving beyond programmatic outreach to deep partnership not only yields more equitable outcomes but also challenges our institutions to champion new models of scholarship, funding, and impact evaluation. We conclude with a call to action for academic institutions to lead this paradigm shift by institutionalizing the principles of community-driven science to foster a more just, healthy, and resilient future.
About Dr Nason Tan
For Dr Nason Tan, public health is a calling forged on the front lines. His 20-year journey from treating tropical diseases with Médecins Sans Frontières in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia to his current role at the University of Hong Kong is rooted in a single, powerful conviction: championing health equity for the most vulnerable. Today, he channels this frontline experience into grassroots action and academic leadership, focusing on planetary health, mental health, and community-driven solutions to build a more resilient future.
