The Health Effects Institute is a nonprofit corporation chartered in 1980 to provide high-quality, impartial, and relevant science on the health effects of air pollution. HEI receives balanced funding from government and industry. Other public and private organizations periodically support special projects or certain research programs. 

HEI has funded more than 330 research projects in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, which have been published in more than 260 reports. In addition, HEI-funded investigators have published their results in more than 1000 articles in the peer-reviewed literature, informing air quality decisions for a range of pollutants, including carbon monoxide, air toxics, nitrogen oxides, diesel exhaust, ozone, and particulate matter.