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Safe and Just Cleaners: Reducing exposure to toxic cleaning chemical products among low wage immigrant Latino Community members

Award Number: R01ES027890
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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Safe and Just Cleaners: Reducing exposure to toxic cleaning chemical products among low wage immigrant Latino Community members - Recent research has documented the health impacts of common cleaning chemicals, including skin and respiratory irritation and asthma, as well as potential reproductive effects and breast cancer. Nonetheless, the production and distribution of these products continues to expand. In response public health actions have aimed to reduce exposures through substituting use of environmentally safer products in public buildings and schools and encouraging development of certified environmentally safer product labels. While these initiatives have been successful at reaching certain groups of workers and consumers, low wage domestic and other cleaning workers, who are disproportionately immigrant and Latino, have been largely left out due to factors including knowledge, awareness, cost and accessibility. The Safe and Just Cleaners Project aims to address this environmental health disparity by documenting and reducing exposures to cleaning agents among domestic cleaning workers in the Latino immigrant worker community in NYC, as part of a University- Community partnership. The rationale for this project is that once domestic cleaners, as part of a large and influential community-based organization, gain capacity and knowledge to recognize their exposures and potential risks as workers, this will lay the basis for building a joint worker-community effort that will simultaneously a) improve conditions for themselves as cleaning workers, and b) reduce exposure to hazardous cleaning agents in the larger community of which the workers are a part. Working collaboratively with the largest Latino immigrant community-based organization in NYC, with 30,000 members, the project will survey Latino domestic workers about their use, work practices, values, knowledge and attitudes about potential hazards and self-reported health problems associated with consumer cleaning product use. The project will then identify and quantitatively evaluate the exposure levels and conditions that result in inhalation and dermal exposures to volatile organic and quaternary ammonium compounds, two major and potentially toxic components of commercial cleaning agents, among Latino immigrant domestic cleaning workers. The project will measure exposures both at the time of cleaning as well as residual exposures that might continue to contaminate home environments even after cleaning tasks are complete. These findings will be used to develop and implement a multilevel strategic campaign to reduce exposures among immigrant communities through local and national partnerships. Embedding this campaign within a workers’ rights and social justice perspective provides an approach that educates people about safer alternatives while simultaneously pursuing broader programmatic and policy initiatives to reduce exposures.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = -$1 )
2024	2022	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	6530 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	000	5	6/20/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$1
														Subtotal = -$1

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $547,218 )
2022	2022	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	000	5	11/17/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$547,218
														Subtotal = $547,218

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $649,641 )
2021	2021	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	001	4	2/15/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$108,778
2021	2021	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	003	4	8/12/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$96,262
2021	2021	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	002	4	2/26/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$108,777
2021	2021	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	000	4	11/24/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$553,378
														Subtotal = $649,641

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $886,167 )
2020	2020	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	001	3	9/16/2020	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$195,901
2020	2020	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	000	3	11/21/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$690,266
														Subtotal = $886,167

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $695,319 )
2019	2019	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	001	2	8/16/2019	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$126,922
2019	2019	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	000	2	11/29/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$568,397
														Subtotal = $695,319

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $599,342 )
2018	2018	RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	65-30 KISSENA BLVD	FLUSHING	NY	11367	QUEENS	USA	Environmental Health	000	1	11/28/2017	NEW	$599,342
														Subtotal = $599,342

Grand Total All Awards = $3,377,686

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Safe and Just Cleaners: Reducing exposure to toxic cleaning chemical products among low wage immigrant Latino Community members

Award Number: R01ES027890

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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