INVITED KEYNOTE: THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH (GEOHEALTH) PROGRAM: BUILDING DEVELOPING COUNTRY INSTITUTIONAL HUBS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Nearly 25% of the global burden of disease is due to or influenced by environmental factors, and workers around the world face many occupational risks. Despite very high exposure levels to toxic, carcinogenic and other dangerous environmental influences in the developing world, there are currently no institutions outside of North America and other high income countries with deep capacity to study exposures or their interactions with genetic, immune systems or population-based factors. The lack of strong institutional capacity in environmental and occupational health (EOH) in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) is both a serious health concern locally, and a significant barrier to the needs of the global scientific community to understand EOH threats where they are most acute. The Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the NIH, in partnership with the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, recently launched a new program to build concentrated expertise into research hubs for EOH in LMICs. The aim of the Global Environmental and Occupational Health (GEOHealth) Hub program is to create highly-networked centers that become global leaders in the collection, management, synthesis and interpretation of EOH data, serving the larger regions in which they reside. In 2012, initial GEOHealth planning grants were awarded, linking US and LMIC institutions, to support needs and opportunities assessments, planning for policy-relevant research and training in EOH, and fostering partnerships. Focal areas include household air pollution, outdoor air quality, water quality, workplace safety, agricultural health, toxic waste, and extreme weather events. FIC and its partners aim to build the next phase of the program to best meet the priority information, policy and institutional needs of LMICs related to environmental and occupational health.