EPA Awards Almost $11 Million Advancing Chemical Safety Research
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced nearly $11 million in grants to eight universities through EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program. These grants will help the universities develop fast and effective methods to test chemicals’ toxicity to people and the environment. These innovative testing methods will be used to predict a chemical’s potential to interact with biological processes that could lead to reproductive and developmental problems, and disruption of the endocrine system.
The grantees will focus on developing methods and models to predict how exposure to environmental and synthetic (man-made) chemicals and chemical mixtures may harm the public. Some synthetic chemicals are known endocrine disruptors, which interfere with or even mimic natural hormones and cause damage to the development and function of vital organs, particularly in young children and developing fetuses. There are currently thousands of chemicals in use and hundreds more introduced every year.
