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As a strategy for combating physical inactivity, obesity, and other health conditions, the apperception of greenspace and importance of human-nature relationship have increased in recent decades. With this raised awareness in greenspace, the development of park auditing tools has been positioned primarily in the material conditions (e.g., physical environmental conditions) of parks. An examination of existing park auditing tools has shown that by focusing on particular material conditions, built environment…

Continue reading “New Publication: Park spaces and the human experience.”

Job discrimination, a social stressor, may lead to sleep health disparities among workers; yet, limited research has examined this relationship and specific sources of job discrimination. We used a US sample of working women (n = 26,085), participants in the Sister Study (2008–2016), to examine the associations of perceived job discrimination due to sex, race, age, health conditions, and/or sexual orientation with sleep health. Cross-sectionally, linear or logistic regression models…

Continue reading “Various Types of Perceived Job Discrimination and Sleep Health Among Working Women: Findings From the Sister Study”

Across the institute, researchers are lending their expertise to the fight against the novel coronavirus. The April issue of the Environmental Factor featured several projects underway at NIEHS seeking to make headway against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. This month, we offer a roundup of the diverse projects our researchers are doing. Epidemiology of COVID-19 Dale Sandler, Ph.D., is partnering with a team at Harvard University on a COVID…

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In Ghana, more than 77% of the population depends on biomass fuels for cooking. Previous studies show that solid fuel use (SFU) has adverse effects on pregnancy and child health outcomes. Yet, no previous study considered potential effects on early child development indicators (ECDI), nor how SFU effects may vary by gender, and rural and urban areas. We investigated the associations of SFU with ECDI measures, and whether these associations…

Continue reading “New Article: Solid fuel use and early child development disparities in Ghana: analyses by gender and urbanicity”

On this week’s Political Climate, we look at how COVID-19 and climate change are affecting African American communities and how these issues can be tackled in tandem. African Americans are struggling with a disproportionate death toll from COVID-19 and severe financial strain from the economic downturn. This crisis has exposed preexisting racial disparities created by deep-seated social, economic and political factors. These same underlying issues make African Americans more vulnerable…

Continue reading “Fighting Energy Injustice and Coronavirus in African American Communities”

A report coauthored by NIEHS epidemiologist Chandra Jackson could lead to better sleep health for disadvantaged groups. A report published Mar. 10 in the journal Sleep gathered recommendations from a 2018 workshop titled “The Role of Sleep in Health Disparities: Causes and Health Consequences.” Chandra Jackson, Ph.D., co-chaired the meeting and is the report’s first author. She studies sleep health disparities (SHDs) in the NIEHS Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Equity Group.…

Continue reading “Sleep health disparities research can be improved, experts say”

A new review co-authored by School of Public Health researchers at Boston University calls for recognition of “take-home” exposures—exposures to toxic contaminants inadvertently brought home from a family member’s work—as a public health hazard. The review was published in Annals of Work Exposures and Health, and was supported by the Harvard JPB Environmental Health Fellowship. Take-home exposures often fall into a regulatory blind spot, says corresponding author and Senior JPB…

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Dr. Reames and 20 Others Selected for Michigan’s First Environmental Justice Advisory Council Twenty-one Michiganders have been selected to the state’s first Michigan Advisory Council for Environmental Justice (MAC EJ) under the direction of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced today. Read more.  

Climate change is already harming the health of people around the world and it will only get worse without intervention, according to a new report co-authored by University of Colorado Boulder faculty. With contributions from 120 experts at 35 institutions around the world, the 2019 Lancet Countdown report paints a grim picture of what the world will look like without a drastic change in the consumption of fossil fuels. Though…

Continue reading “CU Boulder team helps show climate change already harming public health”

Poverty Impacts Access to Health Care. These Women Are Trying to Change That, JPB Senior Fellow Diana Hernandez is one of them. In the United States, wealth buys health. Consider: In 2000, in Boston’s upscale Back Bay community, a typical resident could expect to live nearly 92 years. But just a few miles away in the South Boston and Roxbury neighborhoods, the average person could not expect to celebrate a 59th…

Continue reading “A look at three women who are working to make people with low incomes healthier.”