Health and Environmental Risk Domain

Research and studies for protecting human health and preserving ecosystems from harmful factors in the environment, such as deleterious chemical contaminants

In this domain, we promote foresight and advanced basic research and policy-oriented research to contribute to the protection of human health and the preservation of ecosystems from harmful environmental factors, such as chemical contaminants.

The foresight and advanced basic research includes the following: (1) evaluation of the toxic effects of a variety of chemicals on organisms in the environment, from the molecular level to the individual and population levels; (2) studies of exposure to chemicals in the environment, and advancement of methods for understanding and predicting actual states of exposure; (3) development of new methods to assess the impacts of ecosystem disturbance factors by using surveys, experiments, and model analysis; (4) systematization of chemical risk management and assessment of chemical kinetics and exposure; (5) development of methods for evaluating the health effects of microplastics and environmental pollutants such as PM2.5, and elucidation of the effect mechanisms; (6) new health impact assessment and mechanism elucidation considering multiple environmental factors, multiple diseases, and next-generation effects; (7) evaluation of biological effects on the cranial nervous system and elucidation of mechanisms; (8) development of a biomarker-based method for measuring lifetime exposure to pollutants; and (9) elucidation of the health effects of environmental pollutants and environmental factors by using epidemiological methods and statistical analysis methods for epidemiological studies as a basis for JECS.

In our policy-oriented research, we promote regulatory science research that is based on the latest scientific findings, including the results of our foresight and advanced basic research and our comprehensive environmental risk research program. We contribute to environmental policy through these results and promote our efforts as a reference laboratory.