As the lights begin to turn back on after nearly a week of outages across Texas, residents who already struggled to pay their utility bills might find it harder to recover. Costs are piling up that could continue to limit some people’s access to heating and electricity even after blackouts end. “The ‘heat or eat dilemma’ is a really, really significant issue,” says Emily Grubert, an assistant professor of civil…
Continue reading “Texas’ blackouts may come at a steep cost”
The concept of environmental justice can traced back to the 1970’s. But, it wasn’t until the 1990’s when the movement really began to take shape, thanks to the works of such scholars as Dr. Bunyan Bryant and Dr. Paul Mohai. Dr. Mohai looks back at the work he and his colleagues have done over the last three decades in a conversation with WEMU’s David Fair. Read more.
Many undocumented households are ineligible for federal-funded state program and need to seek out locally run efforts. Unemployment levels remain high due to the coronavirus pandemic, and temperatures have plunged below zero from a February polar vortex blast. But state officials say they have received fewer requests than normal for a program to help low-income families cover heating bills. The pandemic also is disrupting typical outreach efforts into communities of…
Climate justice leaders will develop equity-based framework to guide Michigan Healthy Climate Plan JPB Fellow Dr. Reames joins a panel of climate and environmental justice experts named to develop a justice and equity-based framework for the development and implementation of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, which calls for a transition to a carbon-neutral Michigan by 2050 that includes communities disproportionately affected by climate change. The five-member Climate Justice…
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In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Tony Reames, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Reames defines “energy poverty,” explores why people of color and those living in low-income communities are most affected, and describes existing public policies that are designed to help underserved households pay their energy bills. Given that climate change threatens to intensify existing disparities, Reames contends that governments should do…
Continue reading “Defining, Measuring, and Addressing Energy Poverty, with Tony Reames”
Assistant professor of environmental health sciences, Raphael E. Arku, has been selected as one of three recipients of the 2020 Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award by the Health Effects Institute (HEI). The Rosenblith Award provides funding for up to three years at a total budget of $500,000. JPB Fellow Arku was awarded funding to study “Urban air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa: A study of prenatal exposures, birth outcomes, and lower-respiratory…
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Evolutionary psychology theories propose that contact with green, natural environments may benefit physical health, but little comparable evidence exists for brown, natural environments, such as the desert. In this study, we examined the association between “brownness” and “greenness” with fasting glucose among young residents of El Paso, Texas. We defined brownness as the surface not covered by vegetation or impervious land within Euclidian buffers around participants’ homes. Fasting glucose along…
Nail polishes have evolved considerably. Toxic elements, such as lead, have been found in nail polish, and it is unclear if new finishes using metallic effect pigments may be contributing to metals exposure in nail technicians. We characterized concentrations of trace elements in 40 nail polishes, 9 technicians’ urine, and 20 technicians’ toenail clippings from 8 nail salons in the Boston area in 2017. We also collected 24 salon surface…
The goal of this research was to investigate the multifaceted interrelationships between the built and social environments and the impact of this relationship on population-level health in the context of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). More specifically, this study assessed the relationship between several social determinants of health, including housing quality, living condition, travel pattern, race/ethnicity, household income, and COVID-19 outcomes in Washington, D.C (DC). Using built environment and…