Category: Uncategorized

The last few weeks have brought a key tool in the fight against coronavirus: Moderna recently announced that a vaccine in Phase 3 trials was nearly 95 percent effective, exceeding even the most optimistic projections. Pfizer and BioNTech have also made similar announcements. But excitement about a forthcoming vaccine has been tempered by the reality that more and more Americans report having serious reservations about getting vaccinated. Alongside further vaccine…

Continue reading “How Promising is the Vaccine News if People Won’t Take it? | Opinion”

HUD’s Supportive Services Demonstration is a large, cluster randomized-controlled trial that leverages HUD-assisted properties as a platform for the coordination and delivery of services to better address the interdependent health and supportive service needs of its older residents. The demonstration tests the Integrated Wellness in Supportive Housing (IWISH) model, which funds a full-time Resident Wellness Director and part-time Wellness Nurse to work in HUD-assisted housing developments that either predominantly or…

Continue reading “Supporting Aging in Place Through IWISH: First Interim Report from the Supportive Services Demonstration”

This summer, the skies in California, Oregon, and other West Coast states turned sickly orange—a hue that lingered in many places for days, due to the smoke and ash from wildfires. It’s estimated that more than eight million acres of land have been scorched this year, and wildfires are still blazing: Nearly 40 fires are still active out west. Climate change is creating warmer, drier conditions in western states, resulting…

Continue reading “How Do Wildfires Affect Our Bodies?”

“Take-home” exposure is when dangerous contaminants come home on workers’ bodies and clothing, unintentionally exposing their families and causing issues including child lead poisoning. And lead dust from construction is a particularly dramatic take-home exposure here in the Boston area, according to a new study by researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Published in the journal Environmental Research, the…

Continue reading “Boston Construction Workers Are Vulnerable to Lead—and So Are Their Families”

Register here: https://www.northeastern.edu/environmentalhealth/virtual-event-registration-open-energy-justice-in-the-time-of-covid/ This conference will convene gas leak activists alongside lay and professional scientists for a discussion about how civic science fits into the push for a Just Transition. Civic science is ”a science that questions the state of things, rather than a science that simply serves the state” (Fortun & Fortun, 2005). In aging cities across New England, utilities leave hundreds of gas leaks unfixed. These leaks are…

Continue reading “Virtual Event: Gas Leaks, Energy Justice, and Community-Based Monitoring”

Highlights • Work continues to be an important source of lead in the home of construction workers. • Overlapping vulnerabilities affect lead dust concentrations in workers’ homes. • Prevention efforts are needed to stop lead going from work to home. Lead is a known reproductive, developmental, and neurological toxicant. Workers with a high likelihood of being exposed to lead at work may inadvertently transport lead home from work, known as…

Continue reading “New Article: Factors Affecting Lead Dust in Construction Workers’ Homes in the Greater Boston Area”

Some Detroiters spend up to 30% of their monthly income on home energy bills, a sky-high rate that places the city among the Top 10 nationally in a category that researchers call household energy burden. The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the situation, adding financial challenges that make it increasingly difficult for many low- and moderate-income residents to pay their utility bills. A new University of Michigan-led project, in partnership…

Continue reading “U-M, community partners tackle energy insecurity in three Detroit neighborhoods”

Days after Washington, D.C., issued a stay-at-home order to contain the spread of the coronavirus this summer, University of Maryland architecture professor Ming Hu pored over data about energy efficiency in the city’s localities. On a whim, Hu decided to place the city’s energy efficiency maps next to its coronavirus case map — and what she found was an unusual link between areas with housing that had low energy efficiency…

Continue reading “UMD study finds COVID-19 is highest in DC’s Black communities and low-income areas”

With the United States set to exit the Paris climate agreement Nov. 4, there’s a lot at stake in today’s presidential election. University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the significance of this moment and how the election outcome could shape the international effort to reduce carbon pollution and control global warming. Tony Reames is an assistant professor of energy justice at the School for Environment and Sustainability and…

Continue reading “US set to exit Paris climate accord: U-M experts can discuss”

Efforts to eliminate anti-Black racism in academia must go far beyond superficial ticking of boxes. The academic community must create conditions for authentic, not tokenistic, Black engagement, argues JPB Fellow Tony Reames. During the summer of 2020, the streets of cities and towns across America, and even the world, filled with protesters demanding justice for the state-sanctioned murders of Black Americans, most recently George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. At the…

Continue reading “A call for authentic Black engagement in the academy and beyond”