The Center for Health & the Environment (CHE) is a 15.75-acre site with sixteen buildings located in South Campus, south of Interstate 80 and the train tracks on Old Davis Road. The facility was originally founded as the Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research (LEHR) in the 60s, and later changed its name to The Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH) during the 90s. Radioactive materials including beagle carcasses were buried at the facility (between the buildings and the California Raptor Center) through the early 1990s some of which is now being cleaned up because the EPA stepped in. Today, as during its ITEH days, CHE primarily does testing to determine the threat of toxins in the environment, including cigarette and pregnancy experiments.
The building houses the administrative offices for the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety.
When this facility operated as the Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research (LEHR), it was home to the legendary radioactive beagles. A person by the name of Chris Watson claims to have owned a UC Davis radioactive beagle. These lab animals were buried on site in concrete lined trenchs, following Department of Energy guidelines for disposal at the time, but the area is now an EPA Superfund site, more information.
"The Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Energy sponsored experiments at LEHR during the 1960s through the 1980s. These experiments consisted primarily of exposing beagle dogs to strontium-90 and radium–226 to extrapolate the human effects from exposure to low levels of radiation. Waste from these research activities was processed in a Radium/Strontium Treatment System... waste was also buried in the southwest corner of the site in unlined trenches (Southwest Trenches)." (source)
