Message from the Chair: 
The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers an opportunity for students and faculty to fulfill a vision together as they explore the fundamental relationship between human health and the environment, from molecular mechanisms to how decisions are made in the halls of congress. The field of environmental health grew out of a need to protect workers from very high exposures to chemical and physical hazards in industrial settings. The methods developed for the work place are now used to measure the exposure of ordinary citizens to environmental agents as they move through the many microenvironments of everyday life. The enormous resources provided by society to sequence the human genome gave the world a deep understanding of the relationship between human genes and disease, but it also highlighted the enormous gap in our knowledge of the role of the environment. An effort greater than the human genome project, is now needed, to understand how the environment contributes to the disease burden of the nation. For example, the genetic risk of prostate cancer, the cancer with highest inherited component is 42% with the majority of a man’s risk (55%) occurring from environmental exposures. The environmental component of risk is an even a greater for breast cancer (67%) and lung cancer (62%) and new evidence has shown that particles in the air may join smoking, diet and exercise as the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The new awareness of the size of the environmental component highlights the tremendous challenges and opportunities of the field. The Department of Environmental Health Sciences is the only department at UCLA with the mission to develop new knowledge and educate students in this area. The faculty of the department and its associated degree programs have a history of excellence that includes two Nobel Laureates, three members of the National Academy of Science, three members of the Institute of Medicine and a winner of the National Medal of Science. The department’s research portfolio includes studies to enhance the quality of surveillance by developing sensitive methods to identify pollutants and other hazards that degrade the quality of our air, water, land, coastal habitats, workplaces and communities. Sensitive methods of detection make it possible to design physical, chemical and regulatory barriers to reduce hazards, before they cause harm. The department has launched a significant effort to identify agents that protect against genetic and cellular damage and translate these discoveries into actions that reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease, brain disease and birth defects. Long-term ecological projects started in the 1990’s have identified how wetlands and habitats are degraded by different kinds of pollution. This knowledge is making restoration a reality and returning polluted environments to their natural states. Assessing how citizens’ value the quality of the environment is critical to designing and implementing public policy that can reduce the environmental disease burden. This is an area where our faculty work closely with economists and lawyers associated with the UCLA’s Institute of the Environment [http://www.ioe.ucla.edu] and other professional schools.
Several areas of specialization and degrees are offered through the Department of Environmental Health Sciences (MS, MPH, PhD) [ http://www.ph.ucla.edu/ehs/degrees.htm] and its associated interdepartmental programs in Molecular Toxicology (PhD) [http://www.pathnet.medsch.ucla.edu/educ/Mol Tox/index.htm] and Environmental Science and Engineering (DrEnv) [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/ese ] doctoral programs. Together these three programs provide students a range of options for careers in the private and public sectors as researchers, educators, managers, policymakers and practitioners in public health and industrial hygiene. The educational environment for students is enriched by research and training opportunities in the Centers for Environmental Quality and Health [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/centers_ceq.html] and a location on a single campus that houses the college of letters and sciences and schools of public health, medicine, nursing, dentistry, engineering, law, management and public policy [http://www.ucla.edu/academics.html]. Our location is adjacent to the School of Engineering and located within the largest health sciences complex on the west coast of North America. The UCLA campus has a wide array of specialized laboratories that offer students the opportunity to learn about and apply the newest scientific tools to their projects [http://www.research.ucla.edu/labs/index.htm].
UCLA is located in the community of Westwood adjacent to the hill communities of Bel Air and fancy Beverly Hills. It is a mere 30 minutes from the trendy communities of West Hollywood to the east and Santa Monica and the ocean to the west. Access to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (http://www.nps.gov/samo/home.htm) is about seven miles from campus. This represents one of the last remaining examples of a relatively undisturbed Mediterranean-type ecosystem in the world. Its 150,000 acres with trails for walking, mountain biking and enjoying nature are a part of the largest urban park system in the nation. Los Angeles is a major international city and this is reflected in a population that is so diverse there is no ethnic majority. It is a city where over 300 languages are spoken, more than any other in the history of human civilization. Los Angeles restaurants feature cuisine from over fifty different cultures, from Argentinean to Uzbekistanian and over 20 major art museums [http://artscenecal.com/Listings.html ], including two Getty Museums [http://www.getty.edu/]. There is a lively pop, jazz and classical scene including the Jazz Bakery [http://www.jazzbakery.com ] and the new Disney Music Center [http://www.musiccenter.org/wdch/index.html] that features the finest acoustics and most beautiful concert hall in the world. However students do not have to venture far for cultural events because the UCLA campus has a rich offering of museums and theaters that feature student movies, international films and the classics. There is a wide array of apartments located in the surrounding communities. UCLA also offers graduate students the opportunity to live on campus in Weyburn Terrace. This new community provides a setting for graduate students of different disciplines to socialize in an informal environment.
Curt Eckhert
Department Chair
