King's now has the most Medical Research Council Centres in Europe

King’s has been awarded a sixth MRC Centre in collaboration with Imperial College London. The new £5 million MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health will investigate the damage that our modern living and working environment could be doing to our health.

Researchers at the centre will analyse the health of people across the UK and how this is affected by aspects of the environment in which they live and work, from traffic fumes and noise from overhead aircraft, to chemicals in the environment such as the by-products of disinfection in the water supply. The research will focus particularly on vulnerable people, including children and the elderly, and how environmental factors outside their control could be increasing their risk of respiratory problems, heart disease and cancer.

The Centre is core funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA), with the two universities funding new posts and studentships. Its researchers will be working with the HPA so that if their work reveals a new health risk, the HPA can take account of the Centre’s findings in its advice to government.

Please visit the King's College London website to view the full story.

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