Environmental & Occupational Medicine & Epidemiology Program

The Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology (EOME) Program seeks to investigate and prevent heath risks associated with environmental and occupational hazards by conducting original research and outstanding professional education.

Our emphasis is in:

• biomedical aspects of disease and injury
• human studies
• molecular epidemiology

THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF OUR RESEARCH IS TO:

• provide scientific basis for prudent and responsible decisions in environmental, occupational and health standards
• inform and inspire clinical and public health practice

THE SECOND MISSION OF THE PROGRAM IS EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

The program offers both Master and Doctoral Degrees, as well as post-doctoral training and a preventive medicine residency program. Also, our faculty is central to the OEH track of the MPH program at the school.

Important Research Areas That EOME Faculty and Trainees Address Include:

• biomarkers of exposure
• early (preclinical) effects and susceptibility to a group of priority toxicant exposures in both the occupational and environmental settings

Active Projects Include:

• the epidemiology of male and female reproductive effects of exposures to persistent organic compounds such as pthalates, pesticides and heavy metals such as arsenic and manganese
• cardiopulmonary effects of particle exposures in the workplace and urban community; respiratory effects of inhaled endotoxin
• gene-environment interactions in the development of acute lung injury and aerodigestive cancers
• neurodegenerative diseases and exposures
• neurodevelpomental disorders in the offspring of exposed parents
• immunotoxicity of exposures to persistent organic compounds cardiac and metabolic effects of mercury and persistent organics
• applications of toxicogenomic technologies to human population studies and  environmental and occupational molecular epidemiology

Our faculty have been pioneers in international environmental an occupational health research and education, beginning with the Shanghai Textile Worker Cohort in 1981, initiated by EOME director Professor David Christiani, and later expanding to  other countries including: Bangladesh, Mexico, China, Greece, Russia, Cyprus, Taiwan, South Africa, Japan, Norway and Italy.

The objective of the Education and Research Center (ERC) is to give occupational safety and health professionals the opportunity to develop public health perspectives, a sensitivity about political climates, and the skills and knowledge needed to identify and prevent occupational impairments, disease, and injuries through control or elimination of harmful occupational exposures.

To learn more, please visit the ERC website: The Harvard Education and Research Center

Director: David C. Christiani, SM, MD, MPH
Professor of Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology