A team at Oregon State University has received nearly $5 million to create a children’s environmental health research center.
Scientists know that asthma is a persistent health issue for children. And research shows that relatively simple changes in the home or childcare setting can help manage it. Researchers in the new ASPIRE center will translate environmental health knowledge into action to improve children’s lives.
OSU professor Dr. Megan McClelland is part of the ASPIRE research team. She said they’ll start out focusing on known environmental risks in the Pacific Northwest.
“Things like children’s exposure to wildfire smoke, lead, radon, flame retardant exposure, the quality of the water—well water,” she explained.
McClelland said they’ll investigate ways to mitigate dangerous exposures and implement intervention programs.
The ASPIRE center is one of only six of its kind in the nation. It’s funded by 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health.
children’s environmental health research translation centers
The OSU center will be housed in the university’s Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families within the College of Public Health and Human Sciences.
The OSU team includes Megan McClelland, director of the Hallie E. Ford Center; Molly Kile, principal investigator on the project and a professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences; Allison Myers, director of the OSU Center for Health Innovation; Megan MacDonald, associate professor of kinesiology; Veronica Irvin, associate professor of health promotion and health behavior; and Perry Hystad, associate professor of environmental and occupational health.
