Leah Schinasi

Headshot of Fellow Leah Schinasi

Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
Dornsife School of Public Health
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
lhs36@drexel.edu
Fellowship Project: “Extreme heat, associated adverse health outcomes, and barriers to heat-health protective behaviors in restaurant and service workers and managers in Philadelphia, PA”

Leah Schinasi is an environmental and occupational epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. She is an affiliate of the Dornsife School of Public Health’s Urban Health Collaborative and a strategic council member of the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity at Drexel University.

Currently, Leah conducts research at the intersection of climate change, climate adaptation, health, and environmental justice. Among her recent research projects are a study elucidating optimal upper thresholds for safe residential indoor temperatures and energy-efficient and health promoting housing interventions within the context of extreme heat conditions, and an investigation of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in occupational heat exposure. She is also interested in the role of social, political, and cultural systems in shaping the perceptions, use, and successes of environmental health interventions, and in understanding best practices for conducting ethical community engaged research.

Leah earned her MSPH and PhD in Epidemiology from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She conducted her postdoctoral training at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France and in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University.

Fellowship Project: “Extreme heat, associated adverse health outcomes, and barriers to heat-health protective behaviors in restaurant and service workers and managers in Philadelphia, PA”

Climate change and urbanization are causing hazardous heat levels, posing a significant public health threat, especially to the cardiovascular system. Despite the known dangers of heat exposure, there has been limited research on its effects on workers, particularly indoor workers like those in the food service industry. Most studies on this subject have been conducted outside the U.S., leaving a gap in knowledge about the heat-related risks faced by American food service workers, who are often from minority or undocumented groups and may work in temperatures over 100°F. This demographic represents about 5% of the U.S. workforce. While behaviors like taking breaks and staying hydrated can mitigate heat-related health issues, there’s a lack of data on how food service workers and their managers perceive heat dangers and the need for such protective measures.

This project aims to fill this research void by exploring the experiences, perceptions, and behaviors related to heat stress and strain among food service workers and managers in Philadelphia, PA. The ultimate goal is to prevent heat-related health issues in vulnerable workers by providing empirical data that can guide the development of interventions and protective standards, including a potential federal heat protection standard from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.