Created in 2000 by the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) of The Center for Research on
Environmental Disease, a joint NIEHS center of The University of Texas M.D.
On the other hand, environmental health practitioners long ago showed that we could prevent
environmental disease without completely understanding the cause, the specific toxic agent, genetic polymorphisms, or mechanistic pathways.
Genetics and Genomics of
Environmental Disease Models.
Additionally, these data are stimulating ongoing efforts to develop mouse models of potentially functional polymorphisms; explore the common variant/common disease hypothesis; address the ethical, legal, and social implications of the genetics of
environmental disease susceptibility; and develop new tools, views, and strategies to improve the discovery of genetic variations responsible for sensitivity to environmental agents.
Of note has been the growth of the NIEHS intramural program in epidemiology, a necessary component of a broad public health approach to
environmental disease. Also of note has been the continuation and expansion of the tradition of collaboration with government and industry (Olden 1995b).
And instead of thinking of one gene-one protein-one metabolite at a time,
environmental disease can now be evaluated in terms of hundreds or even thousands of molecular targets.
Secondhand smoke and traffic noise tied for second place, each estimated to account for 8% of the
environmental disease burden, while radon accounted for an estimated 7%.
WHO, 2006, Preventing disease through healthy environments - Towards an estimate of the
environmental disease burden, Geneva.
By putting a human face on
environmental disease, she touches readers' hearts as well as their heads, engaging them in a way scientific data on their own cannot.
"For many years, mental illness has been thought of as a social or
environmental disease, and many thought that if affected people just worked through their problems, they could overcome them," said Gage.
Located in Knoxville, the East Regional Office is also responsible for providing guidance within the region in areas of community emergency preparedness, communicable and
environmental disease control, health education and outreach.
The research, conducted on 1,000 adults nationwide by the Ministry of Environment, found that one out of every 10 local households has an
environmental disease such as eczema, hay fever or asthma.