In this proposal three topics are addressed (1) development and application of technology to measure chemical reaction products and genetic changes directly in human blood and tissue samples (2) movement and transformation of chemicals from Superfund Sites in the Aberjona Watershed which serves as our environmental laboratory and (3) improvement and toxicological evaluation of chemical destruction technology including incineration, wet oxidation and a proposal using biological transformation of complex chemical mixtures in soils. All three research areas use the human population or the environment of the Aberjona Watershed a 25 square mile Watershed near Boston in which reside some 50,000 people. Biomedical Research Projects (4) - Development and evaluation of technology for measurement of chemical-macromolecular reaction products and mutational spectra in humans. Chemical Fate and Transport in the Environment (6) - Study of the movement of chemicals from Superfund sites through ground and surface water in the Aberjona Watershed. Degradation and Destruction of Toxic Wastes (4) - Improvement and toxicological evaluation of thermal destruction technology and novel approaches to microbial degradation of toxic chemicals. The MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences is an inter-disciplinary unit with research programs involving faculty in Toxicology (6), Chemical Engineering (5), Civil Engineering (6), Chemistry (1) and Biology (1) as well as the Harvard School of Public Health (3). Its programmatic efforts address basic molecular mechanisms of mutagenesis by chemicals and radiation, the cascade of mutations leading to chemically induced cancer, the role of endogenous and dietary nitrite in causing human cancer, the formation and biological effects of combustion emissions, the role of background radiation in human mutation and assessment of the health effects of human exposure to chemicals emanating from chemical dump sites. (Superfund Program).
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