The purpose of this grant is to plan for the establishment of a Global Environmental and Occupational Health (GEOHealth) Hub that would be based in the Institute for Occupational Health (lOH) of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) in Kyiv, Ukraine. lOH will form a consortium with the NAMS Marzeyev Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology and the NAMS Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology. The UIC institutions that will collaborate in the planning for this GEOHealth Hub include the School of Public Health (Divisions of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Epidemiology) and the College of Medicine (Center for Global Health).
Our specific aims are to: 1) Develop a strategic plan for the GEOHealth Hub;2) conduct an assessment of needs and opportunities that addresses the science needed to support relevant policy development in Ukraine;3) update Ukraine's National Environmental Health Action Plan;4) provide academic participation in the development of the National Occupational Health Action Plan;5) Mine data from the Family and Children of Ukraine study to set priorities for policy on children's environmental health;6) form bi-national research teams to plan future research programs;7) use professional journals to facilitate the planning;8) conduct outreach to potential partners in Belarus, Moldova, and Serbia;and 9) evaluate the success of the planning process.
Occupation and environment are major risk factors for the global burden of disease, especially in Eastern Europe. We are planning to develop an interdisciplinary Global Environmental and Occupational Health Hub in Ukraine that would address these risk factors through research, training, and policy development.
