Investigating Environmental Toxicology & Human Health Risks
LRRI has a strong environmental research program that is investigating the health effects of exposures to airborne materials in the outdoor, indoor, and workplace environments. The portfolio spans observational and hypothesis-driven strategies, and the goals, research tools, and investigators overlap with those in other programs.
LRRI’s environmental research traces back to its early studies of radioactive particles, but began in the more traditional sense in the mid-1970s with studies of inhaled sulfur-containing ambient pollutants, and gained international recognition in the 1980s through studies of engine emissions. It now encompasses a broad spectrum of anthropogenic and natural air contaminants.
Common themes include:
- identifying causal agents among complex mixtures
- defining exposure-response relationships
- understanding mechanisms and modifiers of hazards
- addressing seldom-studied, as well as commonly-studied, air contaminants
- linking laboratory and epidemiological findings to better clarify health risks and improve regulatory decision-making
Three major factors facilitating LRRI’s continued success in the field include:
- excellence in reproducing and characterizing complex or unusual exposure atmospheres in the laboratory;
- excellence in the use of animal models to address causality and mechanisms of a range of respiratory and cardiovascular responses; and
- emphasis on objectively evaluating the roles of all air contaminants regardless of current regulatory structure or contemporary dogma. LRRI’s signature ability to fluidly form multidisciplinary research teams is a key asset.
Environmental research comprises a meaningful fraction of LRRI’s research portfolio. LRRI’s largest single environmental activity is the National Environmental Respiratory Center (NERC) multipollutant research program funded by multiple federal and non-federal sponsors. Involving 16 LRRI and external investigators, NERC aims to identify the air contaminants among complex pollution mixtures driving different respiratory and cardiovascular effects, and to determine whether or not there are combinations whose effects are non-additive.
The program’s unique combination of systematic comparisons among complex exposure atmospheres, detailed exposure characterization, multiple response models, and multivariate analytical strategy has fostered numerous other projects addressing corollary issues.