About Reports

IOM reports provide objective and straightforward advice to decision makers and the public. This site includes IOM reports published after 1998. All reports from the IOM and the National Academies, including those published before 1998, are available from the National Academies Press.

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  Global Environmental Health: Research Gaps and Barriers for Providing Sustainable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services. Workshop Summary Released: July 16, 2009

  Humans rely on water, but the rapidly growing human population along with heightened urbanization and poor water management has led to a global water crisis. Increasingly limited water resources and severely limited access to safe drinking water worldwide highlights a global imperative to ensure universal and sustainable access to clean water. The Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine held a workshop on October 17-18, 2007, to stimulate efforts in the urgent issue and reversal of poor water quality, management, and policy.
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  Environmental Health Sciences Decision Making: Risk Management, Evidence, and Ethics. Workshop Summary Released: January 8, 2009

  Eighty-two thousand chemicals—both natural and man-made—are used today. Some of these chemicals do not produce notable adverse health outcomes, but others can be toxic and harmful to anyone exposed. Currently, we know very little about basic properties of the majority of these chemicals and even less about the human health impact of these exposures. On January 15, 2008, the workshop Environmental Health Sciences Decision Making: Risk Management, Evidence, and Ethics addressed emerging issues in risk management, weight of evidence, and ethics that influence environmental health decision making.
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  Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina. Workshop Summary Released: June 25, 2007

  The workshop provided an opportunity to explore some of the most pressing research and preparedness needs related to the health risks of Hurricane Katrina and also a chance to discuss the larger issues for scientific collaboration during a disaster of this magnitude.
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  Green Healthcare Institutions; Health, Environment, and Economics. Workshop Summary Released: June 25, 2007

  The Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine held a workshop and released the summary entitled, Green Healthcare Institutions; Health, Environment, and Economics. The workshop focused on the environmental and health impacts related to the design, construction, and operation of healthcare facilities, which are part of one of the largest service industries in the United States. This is an opportunity of great promise, but more information about the complexities involved in building a green facility is needed.
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  Global Environmental Health in the 21st Century: From Governmental Regulation to Corporate Social Responsibility. Workshop Summary Released: February 21, 2007

  Global regulatory standards will always be a major driver in the field of environmental health, but there is a growing understanding of the value of voluntary standards to fill in gaps or to work in concert with formal regulations. The Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine held a workshop to examine some of the issues surrounding the impact international regulations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) has on environmental health.
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  Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment in Rural America. Workshop Summary Released: March 10, 2006

  Throughout much of its history, the United States was predominantly a rural society. The need to provide sustenance resulted in many people settling in areas where food could be raised for their families. The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Science, Research, and Medicine held a regional workshop at the University of Iowa on November 29 and 30, 2004, to look at rural environmental health issues. This report is a summary of that workshop.
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  Implications of Nanotechnology for Environmental Health Research. Workshop Summary Released: March 25, 2005

  The workshop summary, titled Implications of Nanotechnology for Environmental Health Research, captures the discussions and presentations by the speakers and participants, who identified the areas in which additional research was needed, the processes by which changes could occur, and the gaps in our knowledge.
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  Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment: The Greater Houston Metropolitan Area. Workshop Summary Released: February 3, 2005

  At a workshop sponsored by the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine in January 2004, titled Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment: The Greater Houston Metropolitan Area, representatives from a variety of fields worked together to address issues of health and environment specific to the area. This workshop, one in a series of regional workshops sponsored by the Roundtable, was initiated based on the view that for a long time the world of environment, environmental regulation, environmental control, and engineering had moved in one direction, while the world of health had moved in another.
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  Public Health Risks of Disasters: Communication, Infrastructure, and Preparedness. Workshop Summary Released: January 24, 2005

  The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine and the National Research Council's Disasters Roundtable were formed to provide a neutral setting for individuals with different backgrounds and perspectives to discuss sensitive issues of mutual interest. These two Roundtables jointly sponsored a workshop, summarized in this report, that considered issues related to health risks of disasters.
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  From Source Water to Drinking Water. Workshop Summary Released: October 29, 2004

  The workshop From Source Water to Drinking Water: Emerging Challenges for Public Health, discusses whether the approaches that government has traditionally used are feasible as the United States faces a growing population and increased consumption per capita.