Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments

About 80 percent of the U.S. population live in metropolitan areas. These urban residents face a number of pressing environmental problems including exposure to toxic chemicals from contaminated sites, landfills, incinerators, abandoned industrial sites (Brownfields), industrial releases, lead, and pesticide use. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Hazardous Substance Research Centers (HSRC) Program to develop better, more cost-effective, faster, and safer methods to assess and clean-up environments contaminated with hazardous substances. Johns Hopkins University has received an award from EPA as the lead institution for a new HSRC.