This Occupational and Environmental Health Clinical Center is an internationally respected diagnostic referral center and an important interface between the research programs of the Division of Environmental Health Science and populations exposed to environmental hazards. Open to all persons with environmentally-induced disease or with toxic occupational exposure, the clinic has long enjoyed a reputation for excellence in the areas of diagnostic assessment and preventive intervention. Diseases frequently seen in the Center include lead poisoning, asbestosis, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Examples of service conducted through the Clinical Center include provision of educational programs for building trades workers to enable them to identify and reduce their exposures to asbestos. Research by physicians in the Clinical Center led to the recognition and control of excessive lead exposures of police and shooters at recreational firing ranges. Investigations are underway on the health effects of lead and asbestos exposure in demolition and structural steel maintenance workers, and of carbon monoxide exposure in tunnel workers.

The Clinical Center has recently added satellite sites in Westchester County and in Brooklyn, where staff physicians see patients several days a week. Our goal is to improve public health by preventing occupational and environmental disease and by early detection of work-related illness when it has occurred. In this effort, we work closely with labor unions, employers, government and service organizations, health care providers, and community organizations to prevent job-related and other environmental illness. Our research and prevention activities are supported by government grants and by service fees. These Centers are not-for-profit organizations.