EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University’s Center for Integrative Toxicology has received a grant renewal of $16 million from the federal government’s Superfund Basic Research Program, funds that will be used to help clean up and assess the potential health hazards of some of the nation’s most polluted sites.

The grant renewal brings to more than $52 million the center has received in Superfund grants since it was established nearly 20 years ago.

“This grant is primarily focused on a class of highly persistent environmental contaminants of which the most toxic members of this family are dioxins,” said Norbert Kaminski, an MSU professor of pharmacology and toxicology and director of the center. “In particular, a lot of the work will be focused on understanding how dioxins interact with the environment, primarily soils and clays, and with biological systems.”

The Superfund Basic Research Program, mandated by an act of Congress, is administered by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Kaminski said it’s not surprising that MSU has been such an active Superfund player, especially when you consider the strengths and talents the university brings to the table.

“The area of environmental remediation, especially as it pertains to micro-organisms in the environment, is a very big strength here at MSU,” he said.

The other MSU strength that helps draw Superfund research dollars to the university is the MSU toxicology faculty and the significant number of researchers who focus much of their work on a class of chemicals known as halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons.

“Dioxins, as well as PCBs, fall into this class,” Kaminski said, “and we have a significant amount of funding at MSU outside of Superfund for this work. MSU is very well known for toxicology research, especially in terms of biomolecular mechanisms in that area.

“In applying for this renewal, we chose to focus on this one class of chemicals and thus capitalize on the strengths of the faculty we have in this area.”

The Superfund was created in 1980 when Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. A Superfund site is defined as any land in the United States that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and potentially poses a risk to human health and/or the environment.

Kaminski said that in the more than 20 years since Superfund came into being, a lot of progress has been made.

“The problem we run into,” he said, “is that the majority of the chemicals that are on the Superfund list are very stable and persistent environmental contaminants. That includes PCBs, dioxins and metals.

“Our ultimate goal is to be able to understand and model how complex mixtures of these chemicals interact with the environment, as well as to more accurately predict their effects on human and animal health. I believe that we at MSU are in a singular position to continue to make a significant contribution and impact in this research area,” Kaminski said.

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