National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The institute studies how environmental factors increase or decrease a person’s likelihood of getting various diseases, including cancer. At its website, NIEHS maintains a library of resources, including fact sheets, reports and the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives. NIEHS also holds a series of local town meeting’style events to educate people about the impact that environment can have on health. The institute runs a long-term study of women whose sisters had breast cancer, called the Sister Study, which aims to learn how environment and genes affect a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer.