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 In
the Upper Silesia, Poland's most industrialized and urbanized
region, one of the hottest issues is the complex relationship
between the environment and human health. It was an issue that
fascinated Dorota Jarosinka as a young doctor. So after a couple
of years of clinical practice, she turned her attention to the
study of lead poisoning in children.
"In the U.S., there's lead in the paint," she explains,
"and it's mostly poor children who are affected. But in Poland
it's a different story. There, the problem is the lead industry
and leaded gasoline. We're eliminating it from the market by 2005,
and that will improve the situation. But there's still lead in
the soil and the dust. In urban areas especially, there's lead
in the playgrounds, and in the soil and the sand."
Jarosinka, a fellow at the Institute of Occupational Medicine
and Environmental Health in Sosnowiec, Poland, wanted to learn
more about how public health professionals were approaching these
problems in the United States. So she spent her Fulbright year
in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, working and studying
at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science.
"My research question," she says, "was to compare
the programs in the two countries, and to find a way to identify
those at risk in Poland. We have some achievements in prevention
there, but there's still a lot to be done." Jarosinka has
co-written papers on her research, and is looking forward to bringing
her new insights back to Poland.
"It's been a great and very unique experience," says
Jarosinka, who came to the United States with her husband and
three children. "There's an enormous job to be done, and
I want to use everything I've learned here to develop new projects
when I get back home."
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