News Releases from Region 05

EPA Awards $800,000 to Michigan State University to Research Effects of Chemical Exposure on Ecosystems

(CHICAGO) August 11, 2015-- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an $800,000 grant to Michigan State University to study the ecological impacts of manufactured chemicals. This STAR (Science to Achieve Results) grant is part of EPA's Chemical Safety for Sustainability research program to develop new methods to improve chemical evaluation and support environmental sustainability.

Michigan State University in East Lansing will use the STAR grant to develop an adverse outcome pathway for neurological function in fish that can be used to predict effects of chemicals.

"This innovative research will provide new approaches to evaluate how chemicals influence the health of ecological systems. These approaches can help predict and, more importantly, prevent chemical impacts," said Thomas A. Burke, EPA's Science Advisor and Deputy Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Research and Development. "This knowledge will help us more effectively protect the environment from adverse impacts of chemicals over time."

University of California, Santa Barbara, Harvard University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Oregon State University and Texas Tech University also received EPA STAR grants to better understand and predict the biological and ecological consequences of exposures to chemicals in the environment.

To learn more about the STAR grants: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/2014ecoimpacts

For more information on Chemical Safety for Sustainability research: http://www2.epa.gov/chemical-research