Research in Environmental Health Sciences

As the needs of a growing global population interface with increasingly limited resources and strained ecosystems, environmental health protection is one of the dominant themes of the 21st century. At the Yale School of Public Health, our faculty and students use state-of-the-art approaches to monitor environmental exposures, evaluate health risks, discern toxicological mechanisms and design more environmentally-friendly products. Our facilities are using ground-breaking research methods, such as metabolomics, personal sensors for monitoring environmental exposures, and analyses of chemical mixtures and the “exposome.” Our research areas can be broadly divided into six emerging, innovative topics and tools in environmental health research. For details on each of the areas, faculty focuses, and labs, please explore the categories below.

EHS’s partnerships with the local health districts of Eastshore and Stratford and the CT Departments of Public Health and Energy and Environmental Protection provide community-based partnerships and projects to address wastewater and private well water quality, superfund sites and reduction of PFAS in CT’s air, water and soil in Connecticut. The Yale WATER study examines the impact of unconventional oil and gas development on drinking water quality in Pennsylvania and Ohio, while evaluating other factors that may influence drinking water chemistry in these locations.