Programs

China Environment and Health Initiative

Generating new research on the connection between health, environment, and development in China

A Chinese public health expert (far right) teams up with a British anthropologist to interview members of rural families in Yunan about their environmental health concerns, May 2009.

Topics:

[中文]

China's rapid industrialization and urbanization have given rise to a range of environmentally-related threats to human health. While the medical issues are becoming clear, the social dimensions of these problems have yet to be fully explored. The SSRC's China, Environment and Health Initiative seeks to foster collaboration among researchers from the social, medical and environmental sciences, and to promote the generation and dissemination of new, social science-based research on environment and health. CEHI works in close collaboration with Chinese partner institutions through the Forum On Health Environment and Development (FORHEAD) .

Key components of the program include:

• A Collaborative Grants Program to support innovative, policy oriented research on environment and health in China.
• An annual Summer Institute to strengthen capacity for cross-disciplinary research on environment and health in China.
• An Annual Conference to promote communication and collaboration across the natural, medical and social sciences on environment and health issues
• Publications and Web-based Resources to bring the findings of research to audiences of policy makers, media and NGOs.

For an overview of environment-related health risks in China and the state of the field, see the recent Journal of Contemporary China special issue, edited by CEHI Program Director, Jennifer Holdaway.