Six universities will receive nearly $4 million in federal grant funding to study various environmental impacts of manufactured chemicals.
The Science to Achieve Results grants are part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chemical Safety for Sustainability program.
The University of North Carolina-Wilmington will develop a model for measuring endocrine-disrupting chemicals in estuarine and marine environments, while the University of California-Santa Barbara will model the expressions of chemical exposure within an organism. Michigan State University will work on an adverse outcome pathway for neurological function in fish.
In addition, Oregon State University will work to define adverse outcome pathways for flame retardants, Texas Tech University will aim to predict individual-to-community level ecological effects and Harvard University will integrate existing data and models.
“This innovative research will provide new approaches to evaluate how chemicals influence the health of ecological systems," said EPA science advisor Thomas A. Burke. "These approaches can help predict and, more importantly, prevent chemical impacts."