NIEHS/EPA CEHCs: Program Goals

The long-range goal of this program is to promote translation of basic research findings into applied intervention and prevention methods, thereby enhancing awareness among children, their families and health care practitioners regarding detection, treatment and prevention of environmentally related diseases and health conditions.

The more immediate goals of the Children's Center Program are:

• Provide for multidisciplinary interactions among basic, clinical and behavioral scientists interested in establishing outstanding, state-of-the-art research programs addressing environmental contributions to children's health and disease.
• Support a coordinated program of research/prevention Centers pursuing high quality research in environmental aspects of children's disease, with the ultimate goal of facilitating and accelerating translation of basic science knowledge into clinical applications or intervention strategies that can be used to reduce the incidence of environmentally related childhood disease.
• Develop fully coordinated programs that incorporate exposure assessment and health effects
  research with development and validation of risk management and health prevention strategies.
• Establish a national network that fosters communication, innovation and research excellence with the ultimate goal of reducing the burden of morbidity among children as a result of exposure to harmful environmental agents.
• Support a coordinated program of research to determine the impact of environmental exposures on the etiology and prevention of developmental disorders in children.
• Generate data from multiple scientific disciplines to understand the impact of chemical and other exposures on the fetus and child as they relate to brain and organ system development, growth and development of the child through young adulthood, and neurobehavioral outcomes which have public health importance in children.