Welcome

As director of the LSU Superfund Research center, I would like to thank you for taking a few moments to visit our website.

The LSU Superfund Research Center team includes scientists at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and the LSU Health Science Center in New Orleans.

Our center’s research focuses on newly-identified pollutant-particle systems, including environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) that may form from the combination of pollutants and particulate matter. EPFRs are very similar to radicals in cigarette smoke. These hazardous substances are frequently associated with particulate matter (PM), either in contaminated soils or sediments, emissions from treatment facilities or dust from remediation or containment activities. Our research goal is to understand how EPFRs form and the ways in which they can affect pulmonary and cardiac function so that strategies can be developed to protect human health.

We believe an important part of this process is communicating with the public, health care professionals and environmental researchers, regulators and policy makers. We have created this website to help us inform the public about what we’re doing to keep them safe from EPFRs and other hazardous substances found at Superfund sites. As our research continues and new information becomes available, we will update this website to reflect the most current and accurate knowledge about EPFRs.

I encourage you to contact the center if you have any questions or if you want to know more about what we’re doing.

Thank you,

Stephania A. Cormier, PhD

Wiener Chair and Professor, LSU Department of Biological Sciences

Director, LSU Superfund Research Program

Professor of Pulmonary Immunology & Toxicology, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Honorary Professor Child Health Research Centre University of Queensland, Australia