Hookahs: Hot and Hazardous

In July 2011 the NIH announced a new fiveyear, $25.2-million project to conduct research on health effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. Led by the NIEHS, the project will support population-based and laboratory studies at four Gulf Coast universities. The universities will partner with community organizations to incorporate local concerns into study designs and communicate findings of the research. Each university also will implement a community resilience program to study factors that affect how well individuals, households, and communities adapt to events such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The findings will be used to help improve capacity to respond to future disasters.