National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal

National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal, is one of the permanent institutes of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a Government of India’s apex autonomous organization for bio-medical research in the country. The ICMR set up a Coordinating Unit in Bhopal after the Methyl Isocynate (MIC) gas/toxic gas disaster of 1984 and initiated several research programmes. The Coordinating Unit was upgraded to Bhopal Gas Disaster Research Centre in 1986 to undertake long term epidemiological studies on radiological, mental health, respiratory afflictions including pulmonary function and arterial blood gases, pregnancy outcome, neurological, immunological, mutagenic and genotoxic aspects. The Government of India established NIREH, a permanent research centre at Bhopal in 2010 to focus on the issues of environmental health research aimed at becoming a Centre of Excellence in capacity building for research and health interventions to meet challenges in environmental disasters in the country.