NIH 1998 Almanac/The Organization/NIEHS/
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences : Important Events in NIEHS History
June 7, 1960--The study group on the PHS
Mission and Organization final report stated that environmental health problems would
require increased public and private effort, and predicted that a central laboratory
facility would be needed.
January 1961--A proposal prepared by PHS
recommended the establishment of an environmental health center.
November 1, 1961--The Committee on
Environmental Health Problems recommended to PHS that a national center be established to
undertake integrated research and other activities related to environmental health.
September 1964--Congress authorized planning
funds for a central environmental health research facility.
January 7, 1965--The Surgeon General
announced, following a site selection committee’s recommendation, that Research
Triangle Park in North Carolina would be the location of the National Environmental Health
Sciences Center.
April 13, 1965--A National Environmental
Health Advisory Committee group recommended to the Surgeon General that the proposed
center be operated by PHS.
November 1, 1966--The Surgeon General
announced the establishment of the Division of Environmental Health Sciences as a part of
NIH.
September 26, 1967--The deed for 509.25 acres
within Research Triangle Park, N.C., to serve as a permanent site for the Division of
Environmental Health Sciences was presented to the Surgeon General.
January 12, 1969--The DHEW secretary elevated
the division to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
April 1972--The first edition of Environmental
Health Perspectives, an NIEHS scientific journal, was issued.
April 1977--Construction was begun on NIEHS'
$65.7 million facility.
November 15, 1978--HEW Secretary Joseph A.
Califano announced the establishment of the National Toxicology Program.
July 14, 1981--HHS Secretary Schweiker
approved the reorganization of NIEHS. The NCI Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention
bioassay program transferred to NIEHS, and four program areas were established: intramural
research; extramural research; biometry and risk assessment; and toxicology research and
testing.
October 5, 1981--The National Toxicology
Program was made a permanent activity of DHHS.
November 20, 1985--NIEHS was established in
law by the Health Research Extension Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-158).
October 10, 1994--Dr. Martin Rodbell, NIEHS
scientist emeritus and former scientific director, was named corecipient of the 1994 Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in discovering G-proteins, which transmit
signals between cells.
September 14, 1994--NIEHS and collaborators
at the University of Utah announced identification of the first breast cancer gene, BRCA1.
May 12, 1995--NIEHS announced isolation and
cloning of a gene that suppresses the spread of prostate cancer.
December 6, 1995--Experiments conducted by
NIEHS researchers show that phenolphthalein, a widely used laxative, cause ovarian and
other cancers in laboratory rats and mice.
February 6, 1996--NIEHS scientists report
that people who are missing the gene GST11 are more likely to get myelodysplastic
syndrome, or MDS--a serious, often fatal, bone marrow disease.
July 2, 1996--NIEHS researchers find that
women who douche more than once a week are about 30 percent less likely to conceive in a
given month than those who do not.
October 29, 1996–The newly completed
four-story laboratory "F Module" was dedicated on the celebration of its 30th
anniversary.
