National Air Toxics Research Center Closes. As of October 31, 2011, the Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC) ended its research program and closed its offices, which were located in the Texas Medical Center, Houston. A letter about the center's closing from its president for several years, Craig Beskid, is posted on the NUATRC website (in PDF).

NUATRC, authorized by the U.S. Congress in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and incorporated in 1991, was named after the late Congressman Mickey Leland, whose efforts on behalf of public health contributed significantly to the passage of key amendments to the Clean Air Act. The center's mission was to develop and support research that would yield a better understanding of the potential risks posed to human health by exposure to air toxics, as defined by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, and would fill the gaps in scientific data that are required to make sound environmental health public policy decisions. A non-profit corporation by law, financed by government and private funds, most of NUATRC's private sector gifts came from corporations in the petroleum and chemical industries. [Also read Beskid's op-ed article "Houston losing an anti-pollution air ally," Houston Chronicle, June 12, 2011.] (posted 11/3/11)