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tracted to, and challenged by, research problems, opportunities, and facilities. The rapid and accelerating developments in science and technology require that our graduate education system prepare students not only for today's problems, but also for tomorrow's, and possible solutions.

Further, the shortage of professional manpower requires that we utilize existing resources to the fullest. Effective research is one means of assuring maximum utilization of limited manpower. This, in turn, requires the establishment and maintenance on a nationwide basis of some system of research intelligence. It has been estimated that the scientific literature in physics is doubling every 10 years and in chemistry every 81⁄2 years. It is estimated that medical research literature alone is now so vast that it is quite beyond anyone's capacity to review even a fratcion of it, and we are reaching the point at which all except the most outstanding discoveries will be repeated at 30-year intervals. It is obvious that something in the form of prompt, complete, and effective communications must be developed to solve the problem of coping with the ever-increasing magnitude of scientific information.

The Bureau of State Services (environmental health) has completed preliminary plans for establishing a scientific data processing storage and retrieval system for improved extramural grants management and to facilitate scientific communication in environmental health. The plan is now being implemented as a pilot operation, starting with the data processing of grant-supported research and training in the environmental health sciences. As experience is gained, the system will be expanded to include research and training grants data for each of the categorical areas. In developing the system, attention was given to increasing its usefulness by making it flexible and compatible with other known scientific information systems. As programed now, it will be possible to include information from the National Library of Medicine and from other Federal agencies, such as the Science Information Exchange, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Armed Services Technical Information Agency.

To further the research effort in environmental health will require increased health research facilities. During fiscal year 1962, 12 institutions received grants totaling $3 million for research facilities. During fiscal year 1963, 16 additional applications have been received approximating $4 million, but with the present budget limitations it is not likely any of these will be funded.

The following is a summary of research grant support by principal area in the environmental health categorical programs and environmental health sciences.

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Obligations for fiscal year 1963 have not been completed, but it appears that the subject matter groupings listed above will reflect a similar distribution. The $2,892,000 apportionment for research grants in fiscal year 1963 will permit the awarding of approximately 120 projects.

The total needs of an adequate air pollution control program also include research activities in the social sciences (economics, sociology, and community planning) and the humanities (law). A general research grants program in these areas should be initiated consistent with program needs. There are in addition two general areas of need in the field of research grants which are of primary importance. The first is for a substantial increase and acceleration of program-oriented research, research directed toward solving specific practical problems. The second is for more basic research in areas which may provide fundamental information useful in the resolution of air pollution research problems.

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Obligations for fiscal year 1963 have not as yet been completed. However, subject matter groupings are not expected to vary materially, as approximately 90 percent of the above grants have continuances into this year.

The $3,924,000 apportionment for research grants in fiscal year 1963 will permit the support of approximately 200 projects.

The present program is supporting some research in each of the broad areas of program responsibility. The depth and scope of such research, however, leaves much to be desired. In the field of food microbiology, more effort is needed to define the role of virus contamination and the significance of shifts in microecology resulting from changes in food processing. In toxicology, there is urgent need for safer and less expensive methods for the detection and assessment of toxicity in foods and for better understanding of the fate of pesticides in plants, animals, and soil. Probably the greatest need for program expansion lies in the area of environmental engineering in the urban setting. The trend toward population concentration in metropolitan centers is placing unprecedented demands on environmental engineering services in such areas. Research, bringing the skills of social scientists to supplement those of engineers, is urgently needed to identify and quantitate relationships between urban growth and provision for environmental engineering services and facilities.

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Actual figures for fiscal year 1963 are not available but it appears that subject matter distribution will be similar to that shown above.

The $1,766,000 apportionment for research grants in fiscal year 1963 will permit the support of approximately 61 projects.

The total minimum needs for an adequate research program in occupational health would include: studies on the impact of the psychological and social factors of the work environment on health; development of more sensitive methods for measuring individual exposure to a variety of noxious agents; and greatly increased support in the occupational health, epidemiology, environmental measurements, occupational dermatoses, and communicative projects area.

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Currently there are 31 projects totaling $701,783 which have been approved but unfunded because of budget limitations.

These research proposals contribute to the determination of the extent and character of the radiation problem as well as the mechanisms by which radiation produces damage. It is felt that studies aimed at the elucidation of the radiation damage "cause and effect" relationship are essential if low-level and long-term radiation exposure effects are to be accurately assessed and general control programs organized. Other primary concerns are broad epidemiological studies aimed at a scientific evaluation of the long-term effects such as aging, congenital malformations, genetic effects, behavioral patterns, cancer induction, and also field studies of the movement of radioactive contaminants in biota and human food chains.

We have also supported studies aimed at directing scientific findings toward control devices or procedures that are necessary in a "total view" of man's ecological system, and studies that attempt to assess the relationship between health hazards created and possible benefits derived by radiation usage. The determination of the consequences of radiation exposure for present and future generations will require intensive investigation.

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Obligations for fiscal year 1963 have not been completed, but it appears that the program areas listed above will reflect a similar distribution.

The $3,285,000 apportionment for research grants in fiscal year 1963 will permit the support of approximately 180 projects.

The total needs of an adequate research grant program in water supply and pollution control call for an increase both in the depth and breadth of research performed. At present, the water supply and pollution control research resources of the Nation are spread too thinly over a broad spectrum of problems directly and indirectly related to water pollution. The depth of investigation of problems ranging from pure science, through engineering, to the social sciences must be increased if real progress is to be made within a reasonable length of time. The range of problems to be solved must be broadened to include a greater number of fields and disciplines.

In addition, there must be more emphasis on integrating the efforts of these people in widely divergent fields so that sophisticated and meaningful solutions to water pollution problems may be attempted. The chemist and the engineer must work together; the biologist and the economist must join forces. In short the research problems of water supply and pollution control are daily growing more numerous and more complex. These problems require more people for their study; they require the integration of more disciplines and fields of interest for their effective solution.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES

It is proposed to establish research grants activities in environmental health sciences during fiscal year 1964.

Research in the general environmental health sciences will include problems in physiology, toxicology, biophysics, bioengineering, genetics, ecology, behavioral sciences, and others that relate man to his environment in general. The environmental stressor in these problems may be airborne, waterborne, or foodborne, but the specific route is unimportant. Emphasis must be on the reaction of the organism regardless of the route of insult, which may involve either normal or abnormal responses to environmental factors. As previously noted, the results of such fundamental lead research will form the foundations for pointed investigations into specific environmetnal health problems. It is believed that without a strong reservoir of such fundamental and noncategorical research the categorical environmental health programs inevitably must suffer.

This new program of research grants in the broad environmetnal health sciences will be administered with intent to complement the research grant efforts of our categorical programs by fortifying the broad bases which make research on specific environmental health problems more promising and in some instances, even possible.

EXTRAMURAL TRAINING GRANTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

The effectiveness of the Nation's effort in environmental health depends on the availability of competent personnel in sufficient numbers to meet the tasks faced in this field. Individuals are needed with broadscale backgrounds in the physical and biomedical sciences, in mathematics, and in the social sciences. Needs in the physical sciences extend from classical physics and chemistry through meteorology, geophysics, and radiation physics to hydrology, oceanography, and many branches of engineering; in the biomedical sciences from molecular biology, botany, and microbiology through biochemistry, pharmacology, and radiobiology to epidemiology, toxicology, and the several medical disciplines; in mathematics, from classical mathematics through biostatistics to data and systems analysis. In addition, the nature of the problems encountered in environmental health requires the efforts of individuals with backgrounds in sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology.

Table I shows the current numbers of professional personnel in each of several scientific categories working in the field of environmental health in the Service and in the Nation at large. It is expected that by 1970 more than twice these will be required in most categories and triple in some.

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Recommendations of committees

The manpower needs for environmental health personnel were reviewed by two groups of expert consultants representing research, teaching, and control program interests. The first of these, the Committee on Environmental Health Problems, set up by the Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service, in August 1961, recommended:

1. The divisional training programs providing fellowships and traineeships to students and research training grants to universities should be strengthened and augmented. In those instances where authority to undertake these programs does not exist, such authority should be sought by appropriate legislation.

2. A substantial program of environmental health institutional grants to support those universities engaged in programs of graduate education should be instituted.

3. Support for the training grant programs outlined in the first two recommendations should be increased as quickly as possible to a level of $25 million.

A second committee's report, "Conference on Education Needs in Environmental Health," dated June 1962, contained the following recommendations:

1. Establishment of interdisciplinary environmental health research centers at selected universities;

2. Interuniversity cooperation in the establishment of such centers, since the scope of environmental health and the increasing utility of newly developing applied fields make it clear that a single university may not be adequate;

3. Considerable increase in the number of and amounts of money for institutional grants for environmental health research, training, and facilities:

4. Expansion of the conventional fellowship program; and research assistantships and/or apprenticeships in this field for undergraduates. Development of categorical training grant programs

Table II summarizes the appropriations for development of the categorical environmental health sciences training grant programs. Comparison is made with the recommendations made by the Committee on Environmental Health Problems.

TABLE II.-Training, traineeships, and fellowships

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With the passage of Public Law 87-838 and the change in sec. 301.d of Public Law 410, the Service is now authorized to establish research training grant programs in all environmental health categorical areas.

AIR POLLUTION CONTROL

The air pollution control training grants program provides funds to academic institutions for the expansion of graduate level training capacity. The grants support the development and improvement of curriculums related to air pollution research and control at medical schools, schools of public health, and related technical institutions. Also, fellowships are provided at the graduate level to qualified individuals. During fiscal year 1962 seven institutions were supported.

In fiscal year 1963 the budget of $450,000 will permit continuing support of 7 and adding 2 additional schools with the support of 26 students included. In addition, nine individual fellowships will be awarded.

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