University of Washington Department of Global Health

Global Organizations

by subject

Environmental Health

University of Washington

University of WA Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health
Its mission is: to identify agents in the environment and the work place that affect human health; to elucidate their mechanisms; to develop strategies for confronting their effects; and to share the knowledge obtained.

University of WA Environmental Health and Safety is a UW administrative department that is responsible for addressing environmental issues in order to provide a safe educational and work place on campus. To support the University of Washington 's teaching, research, and service missions, the Environmental Health and Safety Department assists organizational units in meeting their responsibility to protect the environment and to provide a safe and healthful place of employment and learning.

Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research (CHC) was formed to learn more about children's susceptibility to pesticides and the way pesticides affect normal development and learning. The CHC is part of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington.

Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health
The UW NIEHS Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health strives to understand and communicate how genetic factors influence human susceptibility to environmental health risks.

Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication
Founded in 1997, the Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication (IRARC) is committed to improving public health by performing state of the art research that develops the scientific basis of methods used in risk assessment and risk communication.

Northwest Center for Particulate Matter and Health is one of five centers around the country funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency to study the effects of particulate air pollution on human health.

Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Sciences (728K PDF*)
The Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Sciences investigates how genetic and environmental variability defines the toxicity and dynamics of harmful algal blooms, the retention of toxin by shellfish, and the impact this has on human populations that are susceptible to toxicological impacts.

The Superfund Basic Research Program is an interdisciplinary program involving faculty and graduate students from DEH, Civil Engineering, Biochemistry, Forestry and Microbiology. The goals are to develop biological markers to assess peoples' exposure to toxicants and susceptibility to disease, to assess physiological damage in humans and wildlife, and to develop new technology to remediate contaminated sites.

Toxicogenomics Consortium
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington Toxicogenomics Consortium uses microarray technology to study the ways that toxic substances in our environment can affect how genes are expressed in cells. The consortium supports research to develop and refine microarray analysis techniques, as well as studies on the health effects of specific toxicants, including methylmercury and organophosphate pesticides.

MESA Air
The MESA Air Pollution Study is designed to examine the relationship between air pollution exposures and the progression of cardiovascular disease over time, looking at participants in six states, representing diverse areas of the country. The MESA Air Pollution Center is sited at the University of Washington , but several other institutions are involved in the study.

Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) has assembled a team of experts including pediatricians, occupational and environmental medicine physicians, emergency medicine physicians, toxicologists, and other environmental health specialists to provide health professionals, government officials, and families with telephone consultation on the role of environmental exposures on child health.

Professor Stephen M. Schwartz, PhD, MPH
stevesch@u.washington.edu
Research interests include: epidemiology of cancer, cardiovascular disease & female reproductive conditions, interaction of molecular genetics and environmental factors in health and disease.

Assistant Professor Anneclaire J. De Roos, PhD, MPH: Env. and Occ. Health Sciences deroos@u.washington.edu
Dr. De Roos' primary focus in epidemiology is studying occupational and environmental exposures as risk factors for disease. Particular exposures of interest are pesticides, solvents, and nitrate in drinking water. She has been involved in studies of associations of these exposures with cancer, autoimmune diseases, and early biological effects. In both research and teaching, Dr. De Roos is committed to improving exposure assessment for epidemiologic studies, through the use of detailed questionnaires, biologicmeasures, public records, and geographic information systems.

Seattle Area

King County Environmental Health Services Division
Our mission is to identify and sustain environmental conditions that promote healthy people and healthy communities in Seattle and King County . Environmental Health focuses on prevention of disease through proper sanitation, safe food, proper disposal of waste and toxics, and management of disease-carrying pests.

Earth Economics (Seattle) is devoted to promoting ecosystem health and ecological economics and to halting the globalization of unsustainable economic policies. Focusing on the vital areas of toxics, forests, fisheries and global trade policy, we achieve our goals through organization, education and advocacy.

WashingtonState Deptartment of Ecology
Ecology is Washington's principal environmental management agency. Our mission is to protect, preserve and enhance Washington 's environment, and promote the wise management of our air, land and water. Our goals are to prevent pollution, clean up pollution, and support sustainable communities and natural resources.

International

NationalCenter for Environmental Health (CDC)
CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) strives to promote health and quality of life by preventing or controlling those diseases or deaths that result from interactions between people and their environment.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
The mission of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes by understanding each of these elements and how they interrelate.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. View the Agency's complete strategic plan, annual report, and policy resources.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), based in Atlanta , Georgia , is a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ATSDR serves the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and diseases related to toxic substances.

National Environmental Health Association
NEHA's mission is to advance the environmental health and protection professional for the purpose of providing a healthful environment for all.

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health.

Environmental Health Coalition (San Diego , CA)
EHC is one of the oldest and most effective grassroots organizations in the United States , using social change strategies to achieve environmental justice. EHC is dedicated to achieving environmental and social justice. We believe that justice is accomplished by empowered communities acting together to make social change. We organize and advocate to protect public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. EHC supports broad efforts that create a just society which foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life.

Center for Environmental Health (Oakland , CA)
The Center for Environmental Health protects the public from environmental and consumer health hazards. We are committed to environmental justice, reducing the use of toxic chemicals, supporting communities in their quest for a safer environment, and corporate accountability. We change corporate behavior through education, litigation, and advocacy.

WHO: Protection of the Human Environment
Mission : To achieve safe, sustainable and health-enhancing human environments, protected from biological, chemical and physical hazards, and secure from the adverse effects of global and local environmental threats.

Australian Institute of Environmental Health seeks to provide a healthy, safe and attractive natural, built and social environment for the Australian community through the enhancement of the practice of Environmental Health and the professional development of Environmental Health Practitioners.

The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland
The objects for which the Institute is established are for the benefit of the community to promote the advancement of Environmental Health by: stimulating general interest in and disseminating knowledge concerning Environmental Health; promoting education and training in matters relating to Environmental Health; and maintaining, by examination or otherwise, high standards of professional practice and conduct on the part of Environmental Health Officers in Scotland.

New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health
Mission : To be a major influencing force for implementing and creating environmental health policy as it affects environmental health in New Zealand .

EPHA Environment Network is an international non-governmental organization advocating greater protection of the environment as a means to improving the health and well being of European citizens. One of its key objectives is to bring health expertise to the environmental policy-making process.

Clean Air Initiative in Latin American Cities (CAI-LAC) focuses on reversing the deterioration of urban air quality in the cities of the region that results from rapid urbanization, increased vehicular transport, and industrial production.

South African Institute of Environmental Health
Advance and promote the science and practice of Environmental Health.

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