# Presentation: 275172

## Climate Change

- Mary Gant
- NIEHS/NIH

## NIH statistics

- 18,000 employees
- Approximately 43,400 research and training applications reviewed annually
- 46,700 grants currently funded
- 20 institutes and 7 centers
- FY 2002 Appropriation $23.2 billion
- FY 2003 Request $27.3 billion

## NIH Institutes and Abbreviations

| Institute | Abbreviation |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| National Cancer Institute | NCI |  |
| National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute | NHLBI |  |
| National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease | NIAID |  |
| National Eye Institute | NEI |  |
| National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases  | NIDDK |  |
| National Institute on Aging | NIA |  |
| National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin | NIAMS |  |
| National Human Genome Research Institute | NHGRI |  |
| National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke  | NINDS |  |
| National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders 
 | NIDR
NIDCD |  |
|  |  |  |

## NIH Institutes and Abbreviations (cont’d)

| Institute | Abbreviation |
| --- | --- |
| National Institute of Child Health and Human Development  | NICHD |
| National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse
National Institute on Drug Abuse  | NIAAA
NIDA |
| National Institute of Mental Health  | NIMH |
| National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering  | NIBIB |
| National Institute of General Medical Sciences | NIGMS |
| National Institute of Nursing Research | NINR |
| National Library of Medicine  | NLM |
| National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | NIEHS |

## NIH centers and abbreviations

| Center | Abbreviation |
| --- | --- |
| Center for Information Technology  | CIT |
| Center for Scientific Review  | CSR |
| John E. Fogarty International Center  | FIC |
| National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine | NCCAM |
| National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities | NCMHD |
| National Center for Research Resources  | NCRR |
| Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center  | CC |

## Global Change Budget Table

| Institute | Area | FY02 estimate | FY03 estimate |   |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NCI | Cancer | 39.5 | 45.3 |  |
| NHLBI | Heart, Lung, and Blood | 9.6 | 10.3 |  |
| NIAID | Allergy and infectious disease | 1.8 | 1.9 |  |
| NEI | Eye | 16.5 | 17.6 |  |
| NIEHS | Environmental Health | 55.8 | 60.2 |  |
| NIA | Aging | 1.9 | 2.1 |  |
| NIAMS | Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin | 3.2 | 3.5 |  |
| FIC | International | 1.1 | 1.2 |  |
| NIH | Total | 129.4 | 142.1 |  |

## List of global change related research areas

- Heat-related illness and death due to increased heat wave frequency
- Injuries and psychological disorders resulting from altered frequency or intensity of other extreme weather events
- Vector- or parasite-induced disease, whose range or activities might change
- Disease precipitated by altered local ecology of water-borne or food-borne infectious agents
- Health effects caused by substitutes for ozone depleting chemicals
- Health effects due to the production and use of alternative fuels
- Health consequences of the loss of biodiversity
- Effects of UV radiation on human health
- Health effects related to use of pesticides to control disease vectors
- Health effects related to changing patters of agricultural chemical use

## List of global change related research areas (cont’d)

- Injuries and increased risks of infectious diseases and psychological disorders and deaths due to migration, crowding, contamination of drinking water caused by sea level rise and the resulting adverse impacts on economy, infrastructure, and resource supply
- Asthma, allergic disorders, and other acute and chronic respiratory disorders and deaths due to increased air pollution
- Health consequences due to change in agricultural productivity and food supplies
- Health consequences of new technologies to mitigate or adapt to climate change

## Heat-Related Illness and Death

- Aging is associated with a general loss of ability of modulate responses to physiological stress
- Areas of research:
- Heat shock proteins whose accumulation is associated with how a cell responds to heat stress
- Signaling pathways that mediate the effects of genotoxic/oxidative stresses
- Mechanisms responsible for elevation of blood pressure during cold acclimation
- Interactions of heat waves with air pollution

## Injuries and Psychological Disorders Resulting from Extreme Events

- Areas of research:
- Psychosocial consequences of disaster
- Social and cultural dynamics of disaster recovery
- Stress associated with the Tangshan earthquake

## Infectious Disease Influenced by Environmental Change

- The challenge of emerging and reemerging diseases cannot be addressed without considering the complex interactions between the environment, microbe, and host that influence the prevalence of disease.
- Areas of research:
- Molecular epidemiology to study transmission patterns
- Ecology of infectious diseases
- NASA/NIAID project to use satellite systems to study disease patterns
- Network of research centers
- Infection of endothelial cells with Rickettsia rickettsii
- Malaria, sickle cell anemia and the Duffy blood group

## UV Radiation

- UV radiation causes cancer and cataracts and alters the immune response.  Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer, and is increasing the most in incidence and morbidity.
- Areas of Research:
- Behavior research to develop interventions designed to prevent exposure to UV
- Molecular basis of UV radiation effects, especially DNA repair mechanisms and signaling pathways
- Alteration of immune responses
- Role of viruses in tumorigenicity
- Role of diet in cancer development and prevention

## UV Radiation

- Research results:
- The association between melanoma risk and average annual UVB flux is strong and consistent for men and women.  The association with total adult hours outdoors was notable for men of all skin types and women who develop a tan.  [_Cancer Research_, 15 July 2002]
- UV alters the P53 gene preventing its ability to kill abnormal cells.  At the same time, it stimulates healthy P53 genes to kill their cells.  [_Nature_, 22 Dec 1994]

## UV Radiation

- Scientists have shown that either single high-dose or multiple low-dose UV exposure can produce cataracts in experimental animals.  The exact mechanism is not known.
- Areas of Research:
- How various wavelengths of UV-A and UV-B damage the lens and result in cataracts
- Interaction between antioxidants in the lens and UV radiation
- Role of UV in development of macular degeneration
- Research Result:
- Dark leafy greens appear to be protective from macular degeneration

## CFC Chemical Replacements

- International commitments to limit the production and use of ozone depleting CFCs have stimulated the search for replacements with the some of the halogenated hydrocarbons as interim candidates.
- Areas of research:
- Reaction mechanisms involved in the several steps of the pathways through which these chemicals initiate or promote disease
- Earlier projects studied a number of the HCFCs and the HFCs.
- Current project focused on a-haloacids, particularly dichloroacetate (DCA)

## Increased Air Pollution

- Quality of the air, the breath of life, is the one environmental exposure over which an individual has the least control
- Areas of research:
- Relationship between lifetime exposure to ozone and lung function in young adults
- Cellular injury induced by inhaled pollutants and repair mechanisms
- Whether diet rich in fruits, vegetables and antioxidant nutrients and/or mutations in specific genes modifies the effect of air pollution on respiratory health
- National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study
- Children’s Environmental Health Centers
- Six – 24 – Five Cities Studies

## Air Pollution	

- Recent Results:
- Data analyzing PM2.5 exposure in sample of 500,000 adults followed from 1982 to 1998 showed that the number of e=deaths from lung cancer increased by 8% for every 10 micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic meter.
- Study of 3500 children who had no history of asthma in 12 southern California communities showed that children who played 3 or more outdoor sports in high ozone areas were more than 3 times as likely to develop asthma compared with children who played no sports.  No increased risk in low ozone communities.

## Pesticides

- Essential for disease control and agricultural productivity
- Areas of research:
- Agricultural Health Study
- Long Island Breast Cancer Study
- Sisters Study/Women's Health Initiative
- National Toxicology Program studies
- DDT/DDE studies
- Pesticides in breast milk
- Colorectal cancer study in Egypt
- Water disinfection strategies

## Small Programs

- Big value; small budget
- NINR support for field study of use of sari cloth for water filter
- NINR supports a fellowship examining environmental promotion at the community level
- NHGRI study to identify genes associated with melanoma

## Future Research Areas

- New pesticides
- New drugs
- Seafood toxins/toxic tides
- Waste dumps
- Population growth
- Increasing poverty
- New technologies/new materials
- New air pollution mixes
- Adequate supplies of water for all uses
- Sea level rise