Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
The Strategic Vision of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) is to facilitate and implement innovative research and community engagement aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying environmental health (EHS) risks and disease among people living in arid environments undergoing climate change. Importantly, the SWEHSC strategic vision supports our long-term goal of uniting interdisciplinary scientists to study environmental effects on the health and well-being of unique populations in the Southwest US, including Native American, Latinx, and rural communities. Because the unique conditions of the arid desert Southwest environment mirror those of many other global desert climates, the interdisciplinary research conducted by the SWEHSC could also improve the lives of the 2.1 billion people globally who live in arid lands. As climate change increases the burden on human health through water and respiratory exposures due to drought, wildfires, and decreasing water supply, the arid Southwest serves as the proverbial `canary in the coal mine' for the resulting health effects. Specifically, research within the SWEHSC focuses on 1) routes of exposure in arid environments, including exposure to groundwater contaminants and inhalation, 2) the adverse health outcomes following inhalation of air pollutants, and 3) the molecular pathways of adaptive responses to environmental exposures such as arsenic and ultraviolet light. If climate change is not reversed, the EHS factors prevalent in the desert Southwest will forecast the future concerns of much of the rest of the US. Accordingly, our mission impacts not only the health and well-being of the arid Southwest populations, but also the billions of people across the planet affected by climate change. The SWEHSC will continue to improve the health of people in arid lands by developing rational approaches to identifying and mitigating hazardous environmental exposures. The geographic location of the SWEHSC, with its large Latinx, Native American, and rural communities, provides unique research opportunities to identify and address basic environmental health hazards that impact these populations. Moreover, strengthening ties between SWEHSC faculty and academic and governmental agencies in Mexico enables impactful binational EHS initiatives, with the tangible ability to improve public health along the US-Mexico border and for broad translation to global stakeholders.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).