University of Illinois renews Fogarty Program in Ukraine (03/17/02)

University of Illinois renews Fogarty Program in Ukraine

CHICAGO - The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) recently renewed its competitive grant from the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health for "International Research and Training in Occupational and Environmental Health in Ukraine" (ITREOH). The grant provides renewed five-year funding for Ukrainian visiting scientists, Ukrainian scientific conferences, and collaborative research with U.S. institutions. The principal investigator of this grant is Dr. Daniel Hryhorczuk, professor and director of the Great Lakes Centers for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health at the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

During its first five-year Fogarty cycle, which ended in 2001, the university's ITREOH program was recognized as a highly successful model by the National Institutes of Health. Ukrainian partners included the Institute of Occupational Medicine; the Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology; the Scientific Center for Hygiene; the Institute for Medico-Ecologic Problems; and Kyiv State Medical University.

The ITREOH program trained 14 Ukrainian visiting scientists through one-to-three month training visits at the University of Illinois and at U.S. governmental research institutes. The program conducted five scientific conferences and seven seminars in Ukraine, including the NATO Workshop on Public Health Aspects of Environmental Pollution in Lviv in 1995; the International Congress on Agricultural Safety and Health in Kyiv in 1998; and the first National Congress on Bioethics in Kyiv in 2001.

A major focus of the ITREOH program has been collaborative research and capacity-building of Ukrainian research institutes. The program has continued to support the Family and Children of Ukraine research program, which is the Ukrainian component of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood.

This research program was initiated by Lida Truchly and Dr. Susan Monaghan and incorporated into the activities of the UIC ITREOH program when both Ms. Truchly and Dr. Monaghan joined the team. The ITREOH program helped support the establishment of the Louise Hamilton Center for Children's Environmental Health in Ukraine, which is the research hub for the Family and Children of Ukraine research program.

In 1998 UIC and its Ukrainian partners carried out the sole environmental health study under the auspices of the Kuchma-Gore commission. This study, called "Environmental Pollutants and Health Status of Children," assessed the influence of environmental factors on the health of children living in Mariupol and Kyiv. The UIC also helped support Ukraine's Ministry of Environment and Nuclear Protection in the development of Ukraine's National Environmenal Health Action Plan.

The UIC's ITREOH plan for the new five-year cycle again focuses on bringing in visiting scientists, supporting in-country conferences and conducting collaborative research. The major Fogarty partners in Ukraine include academicians Yuri Kundiev (director of the Institute of Occupational Medicine), Andriy Serdiuk (former minister of health and director of the Scientific Center for Hygiene), Elena Lukyanova (director of the Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology), Mykola Prodanchuk (director of the Institute of Ecohygiene and Toxicology), and Mykola Tronko (director of the Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism).

The UIC Fogarty team has grown to include Dr. Irina Dardynskaia, Irene Oliynyk, Dr. Robert Cohen, Dr. Peter Scheff and Dr. Lorraine Conroy.

In addition to Family and Children of Ukraine, UIC has established a new research initiative on the health of coal miners in Donbas, supported in part by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. UIC has established a second research center, called the Chornobyl Data Management Center, at the Institute of Endocrinology in Kyiv. This data center is supported by a contract from the U.S. National Cancer Institute which assists in managing data from the U.S.-Ukrainian study of thyroid cancer among children following the Chornobyl nuclear accident. The ITREOH grant also supports the publication of the Ukrainian-language journal Environment and Health.

UIC involvement in environmental health problems in Ukraine began in 1990, when Dr. Hryhorczuk and his UIC colleagues were asked to assist in the investigation of the outbreak of chemical illness among childen in Chernivtsi.

In 1992 the UIC initiated the Ukrainian Environmental Health Project with a $10,000 grant from the Ukrainian National Credit Union Association. Since then, the UIC Great Lakes Center has successfully raised over $2 million in competitive U.S. grant funds to help improve occupational and environmental health in Ukraine.

On April 13, the Great Lakes Center will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with a gala celebration at the Chicago Science and Industry Museum. Honorary Chairs for this event include Illinois Gov. George Ryan, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Cook County Board President John Stroger.

Since collaboration with Ukrainian scientific institutes has been such an important component of its activities, the celebration will include a Chornobyl exhibit, Ukrainian food and a performance by the Ukrainian dance group Hromovytsia.

Readers wishing to learn more about the UIC ITREOH program or about the April 13 celebration may consult the UIC GLC website at www.uic.edu/sph/glakes.

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