Welcome to PRHE

Our mission is to create a healthier environment for human reproduction and development through advancing scientific inquiry, clinical care and health policies that prevent exposures to harmful chemicals in our homes, workplaces, and communities.

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Turning our science into action

Research

PRHE conducts groundbreaking, multi-disciplinary research that answers important questions of how chemicals and contaminants in our homes and environment affect fertility, pregnancy, and fetal and child development.

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Policy

PRHE identifies and communicates how science should be used in policymaking to protect health and is a leading scientific voice on EPA’s problematic implementation of the updated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

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Education and Communications

PRHE is a leader in connecting the environment to pregnancy, prenatal health, and women’s health and works with major medical organizations to issue guidance on reducing chemical use and preventing harmful exposures.

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Latest News

Lethal Greed: How Corporate Manipulation of Science and Regulation Makes People Sick

Inside Climate NewsFebruary 19, 2025News

There’s been a marked shift in the types of diseases causing the most harm around the world over the past few decades. Chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and metabolic disorders have overtaken infectious diseases like tuberculosis and cholera. It’s not genetics, age or lack of exercise driving the rapid rise in chronic disease, scientists at a new research center say.

Ultra-processed food? Forever chemicals? Declining birth rates? What’s behind rising cancer in the under-50s?

The GuardianJanuary 26, 2025News

Research into the disease has never been more far-reaching, but there is little consensus as to what is causing the rocketing rates of diagnosis in young adults.

Factory smokestacks with smoke coming out of them

Scientists cite disease “epidemic” in launch of new “Center to End Corporate Harm”

The New LedeJanuary 16, 2025News

Citing an “industrial epidemic of disease,” a group of scientists have launched an organization aimed at tracking and preventing diseases tied to pollution and products pushed by influential companies.

Microplastics seen under a magnifying glass

Microplastics in the Air May Be Leading to Lung and Colon Cancers

Cancer HealthJanuary 13, 2025News

Tires and degrading garbage shed tiny pieces of plastic into the air, creating a form of air pollution that UC San Francisco researchers suspect may be causing respiratory and other illnesses.

Health experts rally for ‘call to arms’ to protect children from toxic chemicals

The GuardianJanuary 08, 2025News

Children are suffering and dying from disease that emerging scientific research has linked to chemical exposures, findings that require urgent revamping of laws around the world, according to a new paper published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Microplastics in the Air Linked to Infertility and Cancer, Review Finds

NewsweekDecember 26, 2024News

A new review of roughly 3,000 studies has found that microplastics could be to blame for contributing to air pollution, respiratory issues, and additional health problems, including cancer and male and female infertility.

Looking at microplastics through microscope

Scientists know our bodies are full of microplastics. What are they doing to us?

NPRDecember 18, 2024News

It's a disturbing thought: At this very moment, tiny crumbs of plastic are trickling through our bodies, a parade of unwelcome houseguests ready to take up residence in some tissue or organ.

Are Microplastics In the Air Putting Your Fertility At Risk?

HealthDayDecember 18, 2024News

Microscopic plastic particles in the air could be contributing to a wide variety of health problems, including lung and colon cancers. Tires and degrading garbage shed tiny pieces of plastic which become airborne, creating a form of air pollution that’s not very well understood, a new review says.

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