U of I gets $7.9 million environmental research grant

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - An environmental research center at the University of Iowa has received a $7.9 million grant to help support research of rural health issues.

The Environmental Health Sciences Research Center is getting a five-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to help local researchers study the effect on health of rural and agricultural exposures.

"We're interested in the problems rural people face in their daily lives," said Peter Thorne, professor, head of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and director of the research center.

Thorne said research includes the impact that everything from agriculture to rural manufacturing - and even the alternative energy sector - has on human health.

The center is based in the UI College of Public Health, but has 65 faculty researchers from a number of colleges including Public Health, Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering, and Liberal Arts and Sciences. The new funding will help support more than $500 million worth of research projects across campus.

"The strength of the center comes from our multidisciplinary approach: Bringing scientists together from many different disciplines to tackle the most challenging environmental health issues of our day with highly innovative research," Thorne said.

The center, founded in 1990, is one of 16 programs across the country to receive such funding, however it's the only one based in the Midwest, Thorne said.