EHEL Marks 50 Years of Navy Toxicology Research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Fifty years ago, the Navy moved a small group of toxicologists to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, beginning a research presence at Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton that continues today through the Environmental Health Effects Laboratory, or EHEL.

Today, EHEL serves as the Navy’s operational toxicology laboratory, studying how chemical and environmental stressors in military settings can affect warfighter health, performance and readiness. Over time, its work has expanded from early research tied to surface ships and submarines to wider investigations into broader operational environments and more recent challenges in areas such as tactical aviation.

“EHEL has grown its research portfolio over the decades to include much more than air quality onboard submarines, which was a big driver behind standing up the original lab 67 years ago,” said Dr. Karen Mumy, EHEL director. “While we are still very much involved in addressing those types of issues, we’ve evolved to keep pace with the needs of the Navy and evaluate concerns in many complex military environments and, in fact, across the Joint Force.

EHEL’s roots go back to the 1950s, when the Navy was adapting to a rapidly changing fleet, new materials and increasingly complex weapons systems. According to a 1994 National Research Council review prepared for the Navy, the growth in synthetic chemicals, concern about mission impairment from chemical exposures faced by Sailors and Marines all led the Navy to develop its own formal in-house toxicology program. At the time, there was concern regarding air quality aboard the newly developed nuclear-powered submarine, as well as regarding safety of certain hydraulic fluids that were in use.

The Navy Toxicology Unit was established in 1959 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Its purpose was to generate the biomedical data needed to characterize materials of interest to the Navy and support occupational and environmental health risk assessments for Navy-specific exposure conditions.

That work moved west in the mid-1970s. In 1975, personnel and resources from the Navy Toxicology Unit were reassigned to the Toxicology Division of the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda. In 1976, the Navy determined its toxicology program and the Air Force toxicology program at Wright-Patterson would benefit from collocation and the joint use of resources and personnel, leading the Navy to move the lab to Ohio and create the Naval Medical Research Institute Toxicology Detachment at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“The Navy’s original establishment of the Navy Tox Unit was very forward-thinking at the time,” Mumy said. “They recognized potential concerns and sought to be proactive about evaluating those concerns to ensure the health and well-being of their Sailors. Further, the Navy’s ultimate decision to move the lab to co-locate with the Air Force’s similar facility led to alignment of like resources, which created a more efficient and powerful capability by allowing the two to literally join forces.”

Relocating the Navy Tox Unit from Bethesda established a Navy footprint in Dayton that remains in place today. NAMRU Dayton, which stood up at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 2010, is now home to both EHEL and the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, or NAMRL. EHEL and NAMRL, together with the supportive functions, comprises the command that serves as one of eight commands under the Navy Medicine Research & Development enterprise. NAMRU Dayton’s mission is to enhance warfighter health, readiness and performance through environmental health effects, toxicology and aerospace medical research and development. For EHEL, its 50 years at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base reflect the value of maintaining specialized capabilities able to answer military-specific exposure questions as they emerge.

“We are grateful for our lab’s history that led us to where we are today in being able to use science and research to keep warfighters safe, healthy and ready,” Mumy said. “While we are a smaller lab, our members are focused and driven by a strong desire to protect and serve those who protect and serve our country, and we are proud of our contributions to the U.S. military.”

As military operations change, the mission broadens with them. Work that began with Navy-specific exposure questions later expanded to include hazards associated with the Gulf War, the Global War on Terror and other operational environments. The central task, however, remained consistent: understanding the hazards associated with military service and providing evidence leaders can use to reduce risk to the force. EHEL’s capabilities include inhalation toxicology and exposure research, along with the ability to assess effects ranging from performance decrements and hearing-related injury to pulmonary effects and chronic disease.

“The more we learn about the human body and how it can be affected by chemicals and physical conditions from the environment around it, the more significant the research performed at EHEL becomes,” said Capt. J. Russell Linderman, NAMRU Dayton commanding officer. “EHEL provides evidence-based data to help ensure warfighters can identify, evaluate, and take the appropriate measures to mitigate the health risks associated with environmental and occupational exposures.”

In recent years, some of the most visible work at NAMRU Dayton has involved naval aviation. As unexplained physiological episodes became a significant research priority, NAMRU Dayton has expanded research examining environmental and physiological factors that could affect aircrew performance and safety. Within that broader effort, EHEL contributes expertise in environmental exposure science and the assessment of operational stressors relevant to naval aviation.

“EHEL performs the research that helps the best, safely perform their best, in some of the most challenging environments on Earth!” Linderman said.

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