The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded five universities, including the University of Arizona (UA), funding to establish centers to understand how environmental conditions can be improved for vulnerable populations.
“Exposures to harmful contaminants in low-income communities is an ongoing problem in our country,” EPA Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program Director Michael Slimak said. “With the support of these centers of excellence, EPA is working to address this issue and protect human health.”
At UA, the Center for Indigenous Environmental Health Research will focus on American Indian and Alaska Native communities to address issues such as contamination of traditional foods and household environments. The center will also work to promote environmental health literacy. UA will receive a $5.1-million five-year grant to set up the center.
In total, the EPA and NIH provided $25.5 million for the five centers, with the EPA contributing $7.5 million and the NIH contributing $18 million. Other grant winners are the University of Southern California, Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston University’s School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center.
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