The former Department of Environmental Health officially became the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences on Feb. 1, 2003. We believe the new name better describes three aspects of our program:

• the scope of research, teaching, and service activities
• the close relationship between our environmental and occupational health missions
• the connection between our basic and applied science research programs

Our department’s name change doesn’t suggest a separation of environmental health and occupational health, but rather highlights common issues, methods, and research interests.
As both aspects of our field have evolved, experimental methods and questions asked by environmental and occupational health scientists have become similar. Both perspectives are needed as we face increasingly complex public health problems.

Since environmental laws of the 1970s and 1980s led to the cleanup of the worst contamination, toxicologists have shifted their focus to the effects of chronic low-level exposures to pollutants. They have recognized that mechanisms and effects of toxicants at high-level exposures are different from mechanisms and effects following low-level exposures.

Workplaces are changing as well. Instead of acute poisonings, we are often seeing more subtle changes that affect worker health. These lower levels require more sensitive assessment methods to characterize exposures and begin early intervention to prevent injury.

Though our name has changed, our mission remains the same:

• to identify agents in the environment and the workplace that affect human health
• to elucidate their mechanisms
• to develop strategies for confronting their effects
• to share the knowledge obtained

In addressing this public health mission, our goal is to promote excellence in education and research.

Our name change is part of a larger effort to increase our communication with external clients and partners. We have added activities and events to our outreach effort, including the Workplace Safety and Health Partnership Committee representing employers and workers in Washington state.

In this report of our activities for the 2001–2003 biennium, you will read about several of our cross-disciplinary research and outreach projects, and exciting ways that we have pushed the frontiers of our traditional disciplines. These projects range from Eastern Washington to Southeast Asia, and from basic to applied science—using our research findings to inform populations such as construction workers, parents, and small business owners.

You will read about several of our graduates, who are involved with the worldwide computer industry, policy-making, and the aftermath of 9/11. You also will read about the research of our most recent graduates, and the latest activities of our faculty and staff.

Please join us as we describe many facets of our department in this—our third—biennial report.