UW News

July 20, 2006

EPA supports UW pesticide research with $750,000 grant

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $749,997 grant to the UW for research to develop methods of determining if children are at increased risk of developing health problems because of pesticide exposure.

The project will complement an ongoing, community-based research study in the Yakima Valley.

That study is also funded by the EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and is being conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as part of the UW’s Center for Child Environmental Health Risks Research (CHC).

The researchers will use information about a child’s exposure to pesticides, individual genetic differences, and the early effects of pesticide exposure to understand if a child is at increased risk of developing harmful health effects.

Dr. Elaine Faustman is the principal investigator of the award and director of the UW CHC.

“This award provides an excellent opportunity to apply new techniques to samples that were collected last year during the thinning season — a period of pesticide use,” she said.

“Our goal is to improve the use of non-invasive sampling methods to understand the relationship between exposure and effect of pesticides.”