Programs & Initiatives

Gulf Oil Spill Response Efforts

Since the tragic disaster of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010, NIEHS has been at the forefront of protecting the health and safety of workers and other responders involved in oil spill clean up efforts.

Please see the full NIEHS Gulf Oil Spill Response Efforts page for more information about NIEHS activities.

National Children's Study

The National Children's Study will determine how genetics and the environment affect children's overall health and development. The investigation will follow 100,000 children from before birth until age 21 and is the largest long-term study of children's health ever performed in the United States.

Please see the National Children's Study (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/programs/children-study/) page to learn more.

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, several U.S. government agencies, the Clinton Global Health Initiative (CGHI), and other founding partners, is an international effort that seeks to prevent the nearly two million deaths each year due to the effects of smoke exposure from cookstoves.

Please see the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/programs/climatechange/index.cfm) page for more information.

Climate Change & Human Health

Our understanding of the links between climate change and adverse human health impacts is increasing, but many knowledge gaps remain. The NIEHS is engaged in multiple activities with other federal agencies, international research and policy organizations, academia, and nongovernmental organization stakeholders to identify these knowledge gaps, craft a research agenda to address them, communicate findings, and work with decision makers to incorporate this information into sound health policy and actions. Our activities in this area seek to:

• Provide research on human health impacts related to climate change and on strategies to mitigate and adapt to these changes
• Raise awareness and create new partnerships to advance key areas of health research and knowledge development
• Serve as an authoritative source of information on climate change, energy, and health, and to assist scientists, health professionals, community stakeholders, and others who wish to engage in this arena

Please see the Climate Change & Human Health page to learn more.

Education and Biomedical Research Development

This office is a focal point of the NIEHS for establishing goals and developing programs to assure minority participation and success in NIEHS research and training programs. Included in these activities are K-12 environmental health sciences education programs, minority health research and training programs, environmental health research and training programs at minority institutions, and research and training programs that address low-income and underserved populations. Dr. Marian Johnson-Thompson and others lead this multi-faceted effort.

Exposure Biology Program and the National Children's Study

The NIEHS leads the Exposure Biology Program as it relates to the National Children's Study   (http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/) . The National Children's Study is designed to examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The Exposure Biology Program focuses on the development of innovative technologies to measure environmental exposures (broadly defined) that contribute to the development of disease.

Exposure Biology Program of the NIH Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI)

The NIEHS leads the Exposure Biology Program, one of the two main components of the trans-NIH GEI. The Exposure Biology Program focuses on development of innovative technologies to measure environmental exposures such as toxins and toxicants, diet, physical activity, psychosocial stress, and addictive substances that contribute to the development of disease.

Global Environmental Health

As a public health institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)    (http://www.nih.gov/) , the NIEHS has a commitment to the goals of protecting and improving global health. With a strong history of international cooperation on environmental health problems and a research vision aimed at solving the puzzles of environmentally induced human disease, the NIEHS is uniquely poised at the forefront of Global Environmental Health (GEH). Global Environmental Health at NIEHS encompasses global research, international fellows training, outreach and capacity building, and service to the scientific community.

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Implementation of the NTP Vision and Roadmap

The OD is engaged in a long-term effort by the NTP to assist in achieving the NTP Vision & Roadmap of future activities, particularly contributing to the development of new tools for high-throughput screening and new animal models of genetic susceptibility.

Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine

The NIEHS was instrumental in the establishment of the National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine, and continues to sponsor the panel. The Roundtable was established to provide a mechanism for parties interested in environmental health from the academic, industrial, and federal research perspectives to meet and discuss sensitive and difficult issues of mutual interest in a neutral setting. The purpose is to foster dialogue and discussion among sectors and institutions, and to illuminate issues. Among the landmark publications in the Roundtable’s history is the seminal 2001 report, Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment: A New Vision of Environmental Health for the 21st Century.

NanoHealth Enterprise Initiative in Public-Private Partnerships

The NIEHS is engaged in efforts to establish the NIH NanoHealth Enterprise. This broad-based public-private partnership initiative is designed to investigate the fundamental physico-chemical interactions of engineered nanomaterials in biological systems, and the use of nanotechnology research as a tool for exploring cellular and molecular structure function relationships. The initiative fosters an integrated, interdisciplinary program that draws upon the expertise and interests of the NIH institutes and centers, along with other public and private partners to address critical research needs for the safe development of nanoscale materials and devices. Dr. Sally Tinkle leads this effort.

Please see the NanoHealth and Safety page ("/Rhythmyx/assembler/render?sys_contentid=25034&sys_revision=12&sys_variantid=639&sys_context=0&sys_authtype=0&sys_siteid=&sys_folderid=" sys_dependentvariantid="639" sys_dependentid="25034" inlinetype="rxhyperlink" rxinlineslot="103" sys_dependentid="25034" sys_siteid="" sys_folderid="") to learn more.

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions

The Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions   (http://dels.nas.edu/envirohealth/index.shtml) was formed by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) at the request of NIEHS to facilitate communication among government, industry, environmental groups, and the academic community about scientific advances that may be used in the identification, quantification, and control of environmental impacts on human health. New methods and approaches that can be used to identify and control environmental impacts on human health are explored in regular workshops   (http://dels.nas.edu/envirohealth/workshops.shtml) that provide a public venue for exchanging information and discussing potential implications for environmental health decisions. The committee also produces and disseminates a newsletter summarizing key issues discussed at the workshops.

NIH Roadmap 1.5 Epigenomics Program

The goals of the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program are to: develop standardized platforms, procedures, and reagents for epigenomics research; conduct demonstration projects to evaluate how epigenomes change and relate to human health and disease; develop new technologies for single cell epigenomic analysis and in vivo imaging of epigenetic activity; and create a public data resource to accelerate the application of epigenomics approaches. Dr. Wilson is a co-chair of the program.

Trans-NIH Toxicity Testing Agreement

To test toxic chemicals using cells and isolated molecular targets instead of laboratory animals, this new collaboration leverages the experimental toxicology expertise of the National Toxicology Program, headquartered at the NIEHS; the high-throughput technology of the NIH Chemical Genomics Center, managed by the National Human Genome Research Institute; and the capabilities of the EPA's National Center for Computational Toxicology. This effort is made possible through a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the organizations.