The Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE), at the University of California, Berkeley, recently received $6 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
“Our goal is to identify the causes of childhood leukemia and to support prevention efforts by educating health practitioners, families and public health organizations on risk factors for leukemia,” CIRCLE Director Catherine Metayer said.
The funding is part of $28 million recently awarded for research into children’s environmental health, and is a continuation of EPA and NIEHS support for CIRCLE. The center’s researchers will use the funding to study how toxic chemical exposure early in life can lead to childhood leukemia.
“Leukemia is the most common type of childhood cancer,” EPA Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest Alexis Strauss said. “With this funding, the UC Berkeley-led research team can continue their important work identifying the link between chemical exposure and leukemia.”
The EPA and NIEHS’s joint efforts to fund research into environmental health for children stems from the enhanced risk for children from environmental factors, due to their increased vulnerability to those elements. The organizations have been providing funding to further the understanding of children’s environmental health since 1998.
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