Inside the institute charged with exploring how chemicals affect human health

North Carolina was facing tough economic times in the early 1960s. “The agriculture industry was slowing down, textile and cotton mills were shutting down, and tobacco factories were closing,” says John Schelp, a community outreach specialist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Even North Carolina’s famous furniture industry was having problems, Schelp says. “Students would go to college in North Carolina and, as quickly as possible, leave the state to get jobs . . .