Mr. Eric Canales This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Eric Canales

   www.uspals.net/EricCanales.htm - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/8/2007   Last Visited: 7/8/2007

   Eric Canales, Director Healthcare Services
   
   Eric Canales is a native New Yorker born in Harlem in 1964. Growing up, Mr. Canales shared his formative years between Puerto Rico and East Harlem. He earned an associate degree from The Community College Air Force and served for five years in the United States Air Force and three year's in the Air Force Reserve.
   
   Mr. Canales is a long-time resident of East Harlem and has worked in this community as an advocate, liaison, community organizer, volunteer and a service provider. Mr. Canales has worked in the field of public health for over ten years with a principal focus on issues related to cancer, HIV/AIDS, substance use, welfare reform, and social determinants of health.
   
   Mr. Canales has worked for various community-based organizations in Central/East Harlem, South Bronx and has experience as a case manager, mentor, counselor, community consultant, outreach coordinator, volunteer, and as a community organizer and leader.
   
   Mr. Canales has served as a Co-chair of the Central and East Harlem HIV Care Networks, and is a current member. Mr. Canales currently serves as a board member of The East Harlem Community Health Committee, and of The East Harlem Human Service Consortium and he is the Co-Chair. These two grassroots organizations are dedicated to improving the quality of life of East Harlem residents around health, housing, nutrition, human and social service issues through advocacy and policy intervention. Mr. Canales was the Community Liaison/ Associate Project Director of the Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies of The New York Academy of Medicine.
   
   As an advocate and organizer, Mr. Canales has targeted his work efforts toward several health issues and with the populations impacted including infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-C, substance use, welfare reform, the reintegration of persons released from jail or prison, and chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes. His previous research experience includes research and analysis on issues related to social determinants of substance use in East Harlem, benefit and coverage issues for Medicaid participants, and the public health care system in general. Mr. Canales has served as a consultant with Montefiore Hospital Environmental Justice Project at Albert Einstein Medical College, The Environmental Protection Agency and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Mr. Canales has presented his work to federal and state, public health agencies including the New York State and City Departments of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, APHA 2002 special session; and academic institutions such as Hunter College, Columbia University, The New School University and SUNY Down state, Mount Sinai Hospital/School of Medicine and the New York Academy of Medicine. Mr. Canales has co-authored several papers on this, which have been published in journals such as Health Behavior and Education, Public Health Reports, and the American Journal of Public Health. Mr. Canales is presently working at The Brooklyn Hospital Center/Caledonian Health Center as the Outreach Coordinator/Ambulatory Care Manager.

2. 2. City Limits: News for NYC's Nonprofit, Policy and Activist World

   www.citylimits.org/content/art - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/29/2003   Last Visited: 1/29/2003

   Eric Canales, who will soon be initiated as a priest of the Palo Mayombe religion, worked at a botanica around the time that the news reports on mercury started coming out. Some of his customers were regular buyers of mercury capsules. "I would see people buying it more often than they should be," recalls Canales. Most were spiritual leaders, and he got the impression they were prescribing it about two to three times a week.
   
   Canales had heard of people using it in their homes and burning it in candles. Later, in his job as a community liaison officer for the New York Academy of Medicine, he came across other, sometimes bizarre ideas about mercury. At an educational meeting about diabetes in East Harlem, one woman claimed that "if you get a cut and put mercury on it, you will not bleed."
   
   With his connections in both the scientific and religious communities, Canales started to look more closely at the mercury mystery, working with the doctors at Montefiore. He found that the idea of mercury holding spiritual powers is widespread, reaching back into the histories of European, Asian and African belief systems.
   
   Canales was troubled by how Hispanics, and particularly those who followed African-rooted beliefs, were essentially being blamed for contaminating the environment. He also came to see that the mercury phenomenon as described in the media was far more extreme than actual practice. "It is not used as indiscriminately as I thought it was," says Canales. "There is this perception that is used constantly--but it's not...I was raised in this community. It is not like people are sprinkling mercury around their homes constantly."
   
   One of the most common ways people use mercury is simply to carry around a capsule of the stuff or string one around the neck. Because the material is encased, it is not any more dangerous than wearing a thermometer. When people were using it around the home, Canales says, once they were educated about the dangers, "most of them said, 'Wow--we didn't know. We won't do this anymore.'"
   
   But before there was a chance to further educate people on mercury's toxicity, the entire community was pushed underground. The Health Department letter, Canales recalls, caused a "system-wide panic among botanicas." They interpreted it to mean that they would be monitored, that the government was going to intrude on their belief systems. "Now there is a black market for mercury," Canales says. "We missed a very good opportunity to regulate it."
   
   With the new NIH project, Canales and doctors at Montefiore are trying to revisit the idea of a public health response to mercury use--and do it in a way that actually reduces harmful use of the toxin, instead of driving it further underground.
   
   The NIH has committed $2 million from its environmental justice department for a two-part project over five years to help educate Bronx residents. The Bronx collaboration--between Montefiore, Einstein College of Medicine and the South Bronx Clean Air Coalition--hopes to give spiritual leaders, clergy and other community opinion-makers working knowledge of environmental toxins, including but not exclusively mercury.
   
   One part of the NIH grant is for education and outreach. The project partners will develop educational materials that will explain the dangers of all sources of mercury, including Santeria supplies, but also common household items such as thermometers, fluorescent bulbs, batteries and old latex paint. They'll also hold workshops bringing together environmentalists, academics, religious leaders and others to discuss what they know and make sure the educational materials are accurate and effective.
   ...
   As one of the religious leaders participating in the project, Canales believes the education effort must cast a much wider net. The entire public needs to understand the dangers of mercury, not just one targeted group, Canales says. There are plenty of people who come into contact with mercury through their work--health care providers, plumbers, and construction workers, among others. And, as Canales has discovered in his research, mercury shows up in a wide range of religious practices, from pagan witchcraft to Hinduism.

3. 3. The New York Academy of Medicine: Initiatives: The Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies: Staff

   www.nyam.org/initiatives/cues- - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/7/2004   Last Visited: 12/7/2004

   Eric Canales