Centers for Children's Environmental
Health and Disease Prevention Research

Final Report from the Symposium on Children's Environmental Health (February 2003)

Recognizing that exposure to hazardous environmental conditions can be particularly detrimental to the health of children, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed this program in 1998. The goal of this program is to promote translation of basic research findings into applied intervention and prevention methods. Designed around a central scientific theme, the Centers conduct multidisciplinary basic and applied research in combination with community-based prevention research projects to support studies on the causes and mechanisms of children's disorders having an environmental etiology, to identify relevant environmental exposures, to intervene to reduce hazardous exposures and their adverse health effects, and to eventually decrease the prevalence, morbidity and mortality of environmentally-related childhood diseases. The two foci of this first announcement were respiratory disease and growth & development. Eight Centers were supported under this first announcement.

In September 2000, the NIEHS and EPA reannounced the program, this time with a focus on neurodevelopment. Four new awards were made.

The twelve Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research are shown on the map below.