Centre for Health and Environmental Research

2003 Research Unit Award

The goal of this unit is primary prevention of disease associated with environmental hazards, including regional and local air pollution; emerging water and airborne microbacterial hazards; moulds and other indoor air pollutants as well as indoor hazards such as classroom acoustical quality; and hazards particular to certain occupations. Researchers will focus on four areas: identifying basic mechanisms and risk factors for environmental influences on health; quantifying the risks; developing and evaluating interventions; and developing and evaluating strategies for communicating risks and their solutions to community stakeholders and decision-makers.

Environmental health research is entering a new era. The focus is shifting from identifying and assessing the effects of obvious hazards to understanding the complex interactions occurring between multiple environmental hazards, genetic factors and human health. This requires better, more refined exposure measurement techniques – in the laboratory and also with the use of advanced statistical modeling – to differentiate the impacts of specific sources of environmental hazards, develop targeted control strategies and provide valid environmental data for the study of gene-environment interactions. There is a further need to ensure that this research is carried out in collaboration with industry leaders and policy makers who have the resources and authority to implement exposure controls.

The Centre for Health and Environment Research brings together a unique team of researchers from diverse fields, all dedicated to the goal of primary prevention of disease associated with environmental hazards.

Located in the School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of British Columbia, the centre has a long history of collaboration on research related to air and water pollution, environmental noise, occupational diseases and environmental assessment sciences. With the goal of primary prevention of disease linked to chemical, physical, biological and, more recently, psychosocial hazards, unit researchers focus on assessing and addressing the effects of a diverse set of potential hazards. These include regional and local air pollution (e.g. particulate matter, ground level ozone), emerging water and airborne microbial hazards (e.g. Cryptosporidium, Cryptococcus), environmental noise (e.g. aircraft, traffic, machinery), indoor pollutants (e.g. moulds, endotoxin, allergens), other indoor threats to well-being (e.g. class room noise) and hazards particular to specific workplaces or populations (e.g. sawmills, health care, young workers).

Unit researchers conduct their studies within a framework that considers hazards in community/home environments and in the workplace, and also promotes the development of cross-cutting methodologies and study designs that simultaneously consider the impacts of all aspects of environment on health. Their objectives are to:

• Identify basic mechanisms and risk factors for environmental influences on health.
• Quantify environmental health risks.
• Develop and evaluate interventions for environmental health protection and disease prevention.
• Develop and evaluate strategies for communicating these environmental health risks (and their solutions) to community stakeholders and decision-makers.

Completed award term September 2009.

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