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Your Environment. Your Health.

Oceans and Human Health

Scuba diver underwater with several fish

Program Description

The oceans can affect our health in many ways. They contain many types of microscopic organisms, some of which produce toxins when conditions are right. Toxins from these harmful algal blooms, sometimes called red tides, can contaminate shellfish such as clams and mussels. Eating the contaminated seafood may cause serious illness. Harmful algal blooms are unsafe to touch or swallow, and they can produce airborne toxins that cause health problems when inhaled.

What NIEHS Is Doing

NIEHS and the National Science Foundation jointly fund research on marine-related health issues through the Centers for Oceans and Human Health and through individual research projects focusing on oceans and the Great Lakes in relation to human health. Grantees develop techniques for more accurate and earlier detection of harmful algal blooms with the goal of preventing and reducing exposure. They also study the health effects of eating seafood containing toxins produced by harmful algal blooms.

In addition, NIEHS grantees examine the health effects of consuming seafood containing pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and mercury. They identify indicators of recreational water contamination and illness. They also explore how climate change might affect the formation and transfer of methylmercury to the fish and shellfish that humans eat.

NIEHS also led the trans-NIH Deepwater Horizon Research Consortia program. Through community-university partnerships, these Consortia worked to identify and address personal and community health effects stemming from the oil spill. Consortia researchers also studied the health of Gulf seafood after the oil spill.

Program Lead

Frederick L. Tyson
Fred Tyson, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator
Tel 984-287-3334
Fax 919-564-5064
tyson2@niehs.nih.gov
P.O. Box 12233
Mail Drop K3-15
Durham, N.C. 27709
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