The StreetTalk study introduces a novel research method inspired by social media influencers to explore energy insecurity in New York City. Through short-form video interviews with 34 residents from diverse backgrounds, the study highlights key themes like affordability challenges, housing inefficiencies, and barriers to clean energy adoption. The findings, shared across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, have garnered significant engagement, breaking down barriers to academic research consumption. Learn more about…
Share Favorites Permissions ORIGINAL ARTICLES Mandated Rest Breaks and Occupational Injuries and Illnesses in Dallas County, Texas Construction Workers A Quasi-Experimental, Comparative Interrupted Time Series Study
Breaks are essential especially when it is hot! Results from this analysis suggest that 10-minute rest breaks for every 4 hours worked my provide modest but inadequate protection against work-related injury or illness outcomes among construction workers. Read more about JPB Fellow Leah Schinasi’s research.
Q&A: Nail salon air is filled with fragrance chemicals — could they harm workers’ health?
You know that nail salon smell? That sharp hit of chemicals, the strangely sweet scent of polish, the faint tingle in your nose? That’s air pollution, and it’s been linked to a variety of health effects experienced by the workers who breathe it. Nail salon workers commonly experience irritated skin and eyes, headaches, loss of smell and respiratory problems. Officials in some cities and states, including Washington, have introduced new regulations designed…
Linear urban forest’ project aims to mitigate heat, improve health in cities
June 28, 2024 – In mid-May, a group of Springfield, Mass. residents gathered in a downtown meeting room to view, on a big screen, computer-generated visualizations of what streets in the Upper Hill neighborhood would look like with a lot more trees and vegetation—and what the potential health benefits would be. The presentation—a “design charette” to share work and gather feedback—was given by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Linda…
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Reames receives Michigan Chronicle’s Men of Excellence award
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainability and Detroit Sustainability Clinic Director Tony G. Reames received a Michigan Chronicle Men of Excellence award last week at the 17th Annual Men of Excellence Awards and Induction Ceremony in Detroit. Each year, the Michigan Chronicle provides Men and Women of Excellence awards to outstanding African American men and women who have made significant contributions…
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A Glimpse of Fellows’ Recent Publications, Spring 2024
Despite improvements in water access, over two billion people lack safe drinking water. Katherine Alfredo’s study shows that while taste thresholds for chlorine in rural Indigenous Ngäbe and Latino Panamanians are higher than recommended levels, taste aversion is not a major barrier to adopting chlorinated water in these communities. In recognition of the importance of ethics in environmental epidemiology, Ethics Guidelines were established in 1996 and adopted by the International…
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Socially vulnerable people and stormwater infrastructure: A geospatial exploration of the equitable distribution of gray and green infrastructure in Washington D.C.
Green Infrastructure (GI) has gained recognition for its notable role in climate change mitigation and urban resilience. Meanwhile, there is a growing body of literature revealing the uneven distribution of GI from environmental justice perspective. Given the role of GI, the distribution should also be explored in a social vulnerability context and combining green and gray infrastructure. However, the distribution of GI, sewer pipelines, and their relationship with social vulnerability…
Federal Housing Programs Protect Residents from Lead Exposure
Americans already living in housing supported by federal housing assistance programs have significantly lower blood lead levels than counterparts who would later join these programs, according to new research led by environmental health scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Tufts Medical Center. The findings appear in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives(link is external and opens in a new window). “Living in federally-supported housing—especially public housing—limited opportunities…
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On the Social Side of the Climate Crisis
On Thursday, The Eastern Sociological Society (ESS) kicked off their annual conference at SIS, co-sponsored by CECE, American Institutes for Research, Deloitte, the MacArthur Foundation, Science Advances, AU’s School of International Service, The Department of Environment Development and Health, and the Hewlett Foundation. This was a significant landmark for ESS, because under the leadership of SIS Professor and CECE Director, Dr. Dana Fisher, 2024 was the first year that the topic of…
Slow violence to disasters: Exploring racialized topographies and contextualizing social vulnerability to flood and other environmental risks
In traditional disaster scholarship, social vulnerability is a framework that leverages individual variables to explore stratification in the instance of disaster. As this body of literature has grown, we have lost more context as to why these variables are used within various applications. However, slow violence is another framework that does not necessarily focus on disasters traditionally but provides the social and political context to understand why certain individuals may…