Rutgers, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Institute Mark 25 Years Responding to Environmental, Workplace Health Hazards
| WHAT: | Symposium marking 25th anniversary of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), a joint Rutgers and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School research and clinical group that identifies and helps resolve health crises caused by chemical and other hazards in the home, community, workplace and armed forces environments. EOHSI has responded to such hazards as chemical leaks and spills, polluted industrial sites and the aftermath of the World Trade Center’s destruction. |
| WHO: | Keynote speakers are Ralph Izzo, chair, president and chief executive officer of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors; and Anthony DePalma, former environmental reporter for The New York Times. Symposium presenters are leading environmental and occupational health researchers and practitioners at Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and other institutions. |
| WHEN: | Friday, April 20, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. |
| WHERE: | West Lecture Hall, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, N.J. 08854 |
| BACKGROUND: |
A quarter century ago, Gov. Thomas Kean provided $9 million to create an environmental and occupational health sciences institute to attack rampant environmental problems due to toxic metals and chemicals in New Jersey’s water resources, soil and air. Under the leadership of Bernard Goldstein, its first director, the institute gathered a cadre of experts in toxicology, risk assessment, exposure, medicine, community outreach and teaching who had been scattered among several departments at Rutgers and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The resulting synergy became a model of effectiveness nationwide, with resources from basic research to environmental and exposure testing to clinical treatment. In its lifetime, EOHSI has identified and contributed to remediation of health problems caused by MTBE in gasoline, summertime smog, mercury in fish, arsenic in well water, chromium and lead in soil and building materials, and the dust and debris that caused respiratory illness in rescue workers and residents at the World Trade Center site. EOHSI houses New Jersey’s only medical monitoring clinic to treat World Trade Center first responders and is home of the CounterAct Center for treatment of highly toxic chemical exposure. The institute’s research continues to examine potential new hazards such as those posed by nanomaterials, and how changes in lifestyle and behavior may create new hazards and exposures to be resolved by EOHSI research. |
Media Contact: Carl Blesch
732-932-7084 x616
E-mail: cblesch@ur.rutgers.edu