Message from the Chair

Howard M. Kipen, M.D., M.P.H.
Interim Chair
Department of Environmental and
Occupational Medicine

The Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine is committed to understanding the contribution of environmental and occupational chemical exposures to human diseases and dysfunctions. As such, its four Divisions support associated basic and clinical research studies, clinical care, graduate and medical education and community service.

Our basic research studies have made significant contributions in the understanding the contribution(s) of environmental estrogens and ultraviolet radiation to various cancers, and the role of pesticides and metals in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, Departmental research includes clinical and human cohort research-based studies focused on a range of environmental and occupational contaminants including hydrogen sulfide, organic solvents, and more recently particle air pollution. These efforts are facilitated by our controlled human exposure chamber facility, as well as by our programs in chemical exposure measurement and assessment. The latter group not only provides specific atmospheres for clinical research studies, but provides explicit information on actual environmental and occupational exposures that can be simulated in clinical studies. These are coupled with our expertise in geographical information systems and environmental epidemiology, as well as hazard identification and risk assessment.

Much of the Department’s research takes place in the context of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (eohsi.rutgers.edu), a joint institute of the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Here the outcomes of our studies can be further developed into educational programs for teachers and other health professionals, and impact environmental health public policies.

With its expertise in environmental and occupational health sciences, the Department is also the base for the Environmental and Occupational Health Clinical Center that has been involved in a diverse array of treatment activities. These have included those arising from the World Trade Center collapse and from the Gulf War, Superfund site related-exposure health effects, and individuals with chemical sensitivities. Associated with these activities is a long-standing occupational and environmental medicine residency program.

The Department has had a long standing commitment to both medical and graduate education. It hosts two courses for the medical school: Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention and Clinical Prevention.  In addition, Department faculty are involved in multiple training programs for graduate students, including the Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology and the Masters in Public Health program.  The Department is also the home of the HIPHOP program, i.e., the Homeless and Indigent Population Health Outreach Project, established in 1992 by the medical students as a student-directed community service and learning program. Faculty are committed to community outreach efforts, often integrated with their field research. Our faculty also contribute to State of New Jersey committees related to environmental health issues as well as to local activist organizations.   In the future, environmental health sciences must begin to embrace the realities of understanding the impacts of chemical mixtures, as well as the ability of intercurrent risk factors, such as genetic background, intercurrent disease state, stress, gender etc to modulate toxicity. Such interactions are likely to have profound implications for risk assessment and public policy. We strive to take a leadership role in formulating that future.