The Harvard Chan National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Center for Environmental Health is a coordinated set of resources and facilities supporting environmental health research and training activities throughout the greater Boston area. The center promotes integration between basic and applied environmental science, and fosters collaborations that cross departmental and institutional boundaries.
A year after the devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires, Harvard Chan researchers who have been assessing the disaster’s health impacts are taking stock of what they’ve learned, and of the work that lies ahead.
Read our January newsletter! We’re highlighting the winners of our flash funding competition for Community Action Funds, the 1st Annual LA Fires Research Conference, new CE courses, and upcoming seminars!
Living in cities that have more trees—and less grass and shrubs—was linked with decreased risk of heart disease, according to a new study co-authored by researchers from Harvard Chan School.
New research from Harvard Chan School shows that, during asthma flare-ups, the mechanical “squeezing” of the airway known as bronchoconstriction can trigger responses in the epithelial cells—those that line the airway—that make bronchoconstriction worsen and persist, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that may contribute to asthma progression.
A specific genetic difference in a gene called RTP5—known to be involved in smell and taste perception—was linked to a higher risk of early death in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, a study found.
Read our December 2025 newsletter! We’re highlighting a flash funding competition for Community Action Funds, the John B. Little Symposium, and our monthly seminar series.
The air pollution research of Douglas Dockery and C. Arden Pope—leaders of the groundbreaking Harvard Six Cities Study and co-authors of a 2025 book on their 40-year fight for healthier air—was the focus of a Nov. 21 interview on the PRX radio show “Living on Earth.”
We now know about the severe health impacts of tiny airborne particles or PM2.5, thanks in large part to the groundbreaking “Six Cities” study that started in the 1970s. The leaders of that team were Doug Dockery, who became chair of Environmental Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Arden Pope, now a distinguished professor of agricultural economics at Brigham Young University. They are co-authors of the 2025 book, Particles of Truth: A Story of Discovery, Controversy, and the Fight for Healthy Air, and they share with Host Steve Curwood the story of how they undertook their vital research and the industry pushback they received.
This fall, we started a new working group focused on community-engaged research in environmental health, held a number of seminars and a Specific Aims Review Session, and celebrated the promotion of our Center’s new investigator, Dr. Adam Haber, to associate professor. Read more
Prenatal exposure to lead—especially during the third trimester—may lead to significantly higher risk for major depressive disorder and anxiety symptoms in later adulthood, according to a new study led by Harvard Chan School.
