HBOI
EDUCATION
Our goal is to raise awareness of toxins in the environment and the ways in which we can protect ourselves from their effects
We attend community health fairs, town festivals, and Harbor Branch-led outreach events in The Glades and Southern Indian River Lagoon areas to interact with local community members, gain information on how toxins are perceived in the community, and find partnerships of interested organizations and individuals
Our communities are diverse so we provide our materials in English, Latin American Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Translations are provided by FAU Owlingua
We use the above poster to communicate some of the main pathways that people are exposed to toxins in South Florida, and ask people at outreach events to add stickers to the category that most concerns them.
​
This large poster draws people into our booth, and helps us to talk about sulforaphane and the detoxifying benefits of healthy eating
Our latest poster highlights Dr. McCoy's dissertation work in South Florida examining how agricultural chemicals affect the Cane Toad, an introduced toad that lives in and around the Sugar Cane fields. These toads indicate that commonly used pesticides are endocrine disrupting chemicals in wildlife- and that the chance of seeing reproductive abnormalities in cane toads increases with increased agriculture.