NIH, EPA Announce Four New Children’s Environmental Health Research Centers

NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency on Oct. 25 announced the establishment of four new children's environmental health research centers. Each center will receive $5 million over five years, beginning in August 2002. The centers will conduct the following research:

University of California-Davis researchers will examine the role that environmental risk factors play in childhood autism.
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey doctors will look at how autism, learning disabilities and developmental regression can be affected by mercury, lead and the seizure-control drug valproic acid (NIH release, 10/25).
Children's Hospital of Cincinnati researchers will examine the connections between lead paint dust and brain development and the link between asthma and tobacco smoke. They will also look at the risks posed by exposure to backyard pesticides (Bonfield, Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/25).
University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana researchers will examine how eating fish from the Great Lakes, which have high PCB and mercury levels, affects the motor, sensory and mental development of children in the local Hmong and Laotian immigrant communities.

NIEHS director Kenneth Olden said, "[L]ead is not the only potential developmental toxin. We want to see what other environmental substances might trigger developmental problems -- so that we can reduce the exposures and prevent the damage." NIEHS and EPA already fund eight children's environmental health research centers, established in 1998 (NIH release, 10/25). This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

NIH, EPA Announce Four New Children’s Environmental Health Research Centers

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