Policy

Identifying the environmental causes of disease

Summary| Working Group Membership| Terms of Reference| Review Group Membership| Project Downloads

In 2006 the Academy of Medical Sciences established a working group on research into the environmental causes of disease. Its objective was to address increasing scepticism amongst professionals and members of the public that had arisen when claims from one such study were so soon reversed by those of another.

For instance, until recently hormone replacement therapy was thought to protect against cardiovascular disease but it is now thought to be a risk factor. Nevertheless, in some cases, such as the link between smoking and lung cancer, research on the environmental causes of disease has clearly been of great value to public health.

The final report of the working group sets out five key recommendations and offers guidelines for the wide range of stakeholders involved in generating, communicating and translating research into the environmental causes of disease into policy and practice. A synopsis, summary of the stakeholder workshop that informed the working group's discussions and press release accompany the report.

back to top

Professor Sir Michael Rutter CBE FRS FBA FMedSci (chair)
Vice-President
Academy of Medical Sciences

Professor Philip Dawid
Professor of Statistics
University of Cambridge

Dr Aroon Hingorani
Reader and Honorary Consultant and British Heart Foundation Senior Fellow
University College London

Dr Richard Horton FMedSci FRCP
Editor
The Lancet

Professor Peter Jones FMedSci
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Cambridge

Professor Kay-Tee Khaw CBE FMedSci
Professor of Clinical Gerontology
University of Cambridge

Dr Bill Kirkup
Director General for Programmes Department of Health

Dr Geoff Mulgan
Director
Young Foundation

Professor Catherine Peckham CBE FMedSci
Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology
Institute for Child Health

Professor Andrew Pickles
Professor of Epidemiological and Social Statistics
University of Manchester

Professor Robert Souhami CBE FMedSci
Emeritus Professor of Medicine
University College London

Dr Geoff Watts FMedSci
Freelance Science and Medical Journalist

Secretariat

Laurie Smith
Senior Officer, Medical Science Policy
Academy of Medical Sciences

Jenny Wickham
PA to Sir Michael Rutter
Institute of Psychiatry, London

back to top

• To investigate the strengths, limitations and potential of non-experimental methods.
• To investigate the lessons that might be learnt from successful and less successful examples of non-experimental research.
• To investigate how non-experimental studies should deal with complex multi-factorial causes.
• To investigate how experimental and non-experimental approaches should be coordinated to identify causal mechanisms of disease.
• To investigate how non-experimental research is communicated, the value placed by individuals, society and government upon such research and how the results impact on policy and the decision-making of individuals.

The working group will not:

• draw conclusions in relation to any particular disease outcome or set of risk factors other than as examples to help illustrate broader principles; or
• consider issues related to legal liability.

back to top

Professor John Savill FRSE FMedSci (chair)
Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
University of Edinburgh

Professor Yvonne Carter OBE FMedSci
Dean and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Regional Engagement)
Warwick Medical School and the University of Warwick

Professor Rudolf Klein FMedSci
Visiting Professor
London School of Economics

Professor Sally MacIntyre CBE FRSE FMedSci
Director of the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
Medical Research Council

Professor James Robins
Mitchell L and Robin LaFoley Dong Professor of Epidemiology
Harvard University

back to top

• Report [1.65mb]
• Report synopsis [938.77k]
• Workshop summary [358.34k]
• Press release [63.52k]
• Call for evidence [160.04k]

back to top