Oceans and Human HealthOcean Leadership Public Policy Forum
March 5, 2009
Allen Dearry, Ph.D. Associate Director
Director, Office of Environmental Public HealthNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Overview
• NIEHS
• Charting the course for ocean science– Enhancing human health
• Oceans and human health– HABs
– Water- and vector-borne diseases
– Marine natural products
– Centers
– Research and application
Human health and human disease result from three interactive eleHuman health and human disease result from three interactive elements: ments: environmental factors, individual susceptibility and age. The mienvironmental factors, individual susceptibility and age. The mission of the ssion of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is tNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is to reduce the o reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causeburden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes by s by understanding each of these elements and how they interrelate.understanding each of these elements and how they interrelate.
Charting the course for ocean science• Developed by JSOST 2006-07.
• First national effort to identify research priorities that address key interactions between society and ocean research.
• Guide research efforts for the ocean community, including federal agencies, for the next decade.
Societal Themes
• Stewardship of Natural and Cultural Ocean Resources
• Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards
• Enabling Marine Operations
• The Ocean’s Role in Climate
• Improving Ecosystem Health
• Enhancing Human Health
Enhancing human health
• Understand sources and processes contributing to ocean-related risks to human health.
– Introduction, cycling, and effect of current and emerging pathogens, toxins, and contaminants must be evaluated.
– Coastal and watershed processes and mechanisms that stimulate and sustain HABs must be ascertained.
– Influence of climate change and variability on water-borne diseases (e.g., cholera) must be determined.
Enhancing human health• Understand human health risks
associated with the ocean and the potential benefits of ocean resources to human health.
– Quantify risks and impacts of exposure to health hazards and determine the incidence and severity of human illnesses.
– Benefits associated with consumption of seafood should be better characterized.
– Improve assessment methodologies and enhance the accuracy and sophistication of epidemiological studies.
Enhancing human health• Understand how human use and
valuation of ocean resources can be affected by ocean-borne threats and how human activities can influence these threats.– Potential impacts include beach
closures, constrained resource use, and reduced marine operations and recreation due to contamination by pathogens, toxins, or pollutants, and other human health threats.
– Predicting the relationship between social and economic drivers and human health threats requires integrating socioeconomic data with ecosystem-based studies of health threats at appropriate temporal and spatial scales.
Enhancing human health
• Apply understanding of ocean ecosystems and biodiversity to develop products and biological models to enhance human well being.
– Expand exploration, assessment, and development of ocean bioproducts.
– Enhance capability to use marine species as mechanistic models for study of diseases, toxicology, and biochemical processes relevant to human health.
Oceans and human health
• Harmful algal blooms
– Health effects include neurotoxic disorders and chronic diseases
• Water- and vector-borne diseases
– Health problems, such as GI disorders, cholera, & typhoid lead to economic losses
• Marine natural products
– Vast biodiversity of oceans
Harmful algal blooms
• 60,000 human cases & clusters each year
• Health effects include neurotoxic disorders and chronic diseases
• Research
– Increase understanding of toxin biosynthesis and function of toxic organisms.
– Develop designer toxins for new research and detection tools.
– Improve exposure and effect assessment: Biomarkers and epidemiology.
Water- and vector-borne diseases
• Health problems, such as GI disorders, cholera, and typhoid lead to economic losses
• Pathogens include bacteria, viruses, & protists from sewage & runoff
• Research
– Improve detection & quantification methods.
– Genomics & proteomics to improve understanding of pathogenicity.
– Epidemiologic studies to evaluate risks of pathogens.
Marine natural products
• Oceans are extremely biodiverse(32 of 34 phyla are in Oceans)
• Limited knowledge and technology has prevented advancement in this field
• Research
– Multidisciplinary research to increase understanding of marine biodiversity and organisms.
– Study molecular mechanisms and probes.
– Develop new techniques for cultivating marine organisms.
Centers for oceans and human health
• Joint effort with NSF
• Coordinated with NOAA
• Promote interdisciplinary collaborations between biomedical and ocean scientists
• Hawaii, UW Seattle, U Miami, WHOI
• Research, training, outreach
OHH research and application• Largest outbreak of red tide in
Massachusetts Bay in more than 30 years in 2005.
• Using in-water sensors, genomics, and modeling, researchers mapped and characterized initiation and development of the bloom.
• These findings provided the conceptual basis for a forecasting system.
• In 2008, the forecasting system was used to alert resource managers in advance of another red tide outbreak, thereby reducing economic impact and protecting public health.
• Successful forecast of the 2008 outbreak represents the first seasonal prediction of a red tide or HAB on a regional scale.
For more information
• NIEHS
– www.niehs.nih.gov
• NIEHS-supported OHH research
– http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/programs/oceans/index.cfm
• Centers for Ocean and Human Health
– http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/centers/oceans/index.cfm
– http://www.whoi.edu/science/cohh/index.htm
• Fred Tyson
• Allen Dearry
