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About HEI

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  • To accomplish its mission, HEI
  • Identifies the highest priority areas for health effects research;
  • Competitively funds and oversees the conduct of research projects;
  • Provides intensive independent review of HEI-supported and related research;
  • Integrates HEI’s research results with those of other institutions into broader evaluations; and
  • Communicates the results of HEI research and analyses to public and private decision makers.

    • The Health Effects Institute is a nonprofit corporation chartered in 1980 to provide high-quality, impartial, and relevant science on the health effects of air pollution. HEI receives balanced funding from government and industry. Other public and private organizations periodically support special projects or certain research programs.

    HEI has funded more than 380 research projects in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, the results of which have informed decisions regarding carbon monoxide, air toxics, nitrogen oxides, diesel exhaust, ozone, particulate matter, and other pollutants. These results have appeared in more than 260 comprehensive reports published by HEI, as well as in more than 2,500 articles in peer-reviewed literature.

    HEI is governed by a Board of Directors and works with expert Research and Review Committees who, independent of sponsors and each other, evaluate research projects. Occasionally, HEI conducts its own research, but generally studies are conducted by investigators at academic and other research institutes around the world.