The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have begun an Academies-wide initiative titled Environmental Health Matters Initiative (EHMI). The initiative seeks to transform how the nation addresses the bundle of multifaceted issues associated with environmental health—a field that examines how the environment affects human health. The initiative seeks to explore the latest science, identify promising solutions and create innovative pathways toward improving environmental health. The initiative will bring together expertise from across the institution, including environmental, medical, social science, energy and engineering and involves leaders from government, corporate and academic entities.
Through EHMI the Academies promises it will provide leadership and leverage its resources by convening and facilitating efforts to identify and address the big questions in the discipline, explore their complexity, enable the development of holistic and sustainable options and provide rapid expert input when crises demand. A multidisciplinary steering committee has been appointed to launch the initiative in advising the nation on environmental health issues and creating outreach mechanisms to enable a broader range of stakeholders to engage and use the breadth of relevant work.