Launching the UCSF EaRTH Center to Reimagine Environmental Health Science

~ Tracey Woodruff

To transform current approaches to studying harmful environmental pollutants that undermine health and human development, and contribute to chronic disease, today we launched the new UCSF Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center. It is critical that we accelerate the pace of discovery of harmful chemical exposures and improve strategies for prevention, particularly for vulnerable populations and communities that bear an unfair burden of pollutants and disease.

Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) through the P30 mechanism, the EaRTH Center will:

  • Advance understanding of how chemical and environmental pollutants influence disease,
  • Develop recommendations and interventions to improve health across the lifespan, and
  • Support vulnerable populations, including pregnant women and at-risk communities who bear an unfair burden of pollutants and disease.

Housed at UCSF—a top 10 medical and clinical training center in the United States and a leader among public universities in NIH funding—the EaRTH Center will thread environmental health across disciplines to generate new ways of thinking and discoveries. Informed by a Stakeholder Advisory Board representing the experience and needs of community health advocates and professionals, the EaRTH Center engages over 50 scientists, clinicians, and other academics across 19 disciplines—including nursing, medicine, biology, epidemiology, pharmacology, oral health, and more—to address pressing and timely environmental health questions and translate findings into actionable recommendations and interventions.

To learn more about the EaRTH Center’s globally recognized expertise, cutting-edge science, state-of-the-art lab support, and grant funding to stimulate new, multi-disciplinary research collaborations, visit earth.ucsf.edu.

We also invite you to watch the recording of a Q&A with Linda Birnbaum, PhD, former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, from our EaRTH Center launch event on September 14, 2020. Coming soon!

Published by Tracey Woodruff

Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco and the Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. She has done extensive research and policy development on environmental health issues, with a particular emphasis on early-life development. Her research include evaluating prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals and related adverse pregnancy outcomes, and characterizing developmental risks. She has authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters, and has been quoted widely in the press, including USAToday, the San Francisco Chronicle, and WebMD. She was previously at the US EPA, where she was a senior scientist and policy advisor in the Office of Policy, and author of numerous government documents. She is an Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives. She was appointed by the governor of California in 2012 to the Science Advisory Board of the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant (DART) Identification Committee.

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  1. Pingback: PRHE at APHA 2020: How to better protect the health of at-risk children – Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment

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