Fellows News

Expectant mothers who lived near flaring sites had higher odds of giving birth prematurely than those who did not, researchers found. The adverse outcomes fell entirely on Hispanic women. Across the United States, gas flares light the night skies over oil and gas fields — visible symbols of the country’s energy boom. They also emit greenhouse gases, making them symbols of climate change that many environmental groups would like to…

Continue reading “Study Links Gas Flares to Preterm Births, With Hispanic Women at High Risk”

As the United States and countries around the world move through a summer of social distancing and civil unrest in the wake of a global pandemic and the death of George Floyd and other Black women and men that have fallen at the hands of police violence, activists have been calling for the “defunding of the police.” According to a New York Times opinion editorial written by organizer Mariame Kaba,…

Continue reading “Transforming Public Safety and Urban Infrastructure to Mitigate Climate and Public Health Disasters”

Background: Prior studies suggest exposure to oil and gas development (OGD) adversely affects birth outcomes, but no studies have examined flaring—the open combustion of natural gas—from OGD. Objectives: We investigated whether residential proximity to flaring from OGD was associated with shorter gestation and reduced fetal growth in the Eagle Ford Shale of south Texas. Results: Exposure to a high number of nightly flare events was associated with a 50% higher…

Continue reading “New Publication: Flaring from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas”

By JPB Fellow Marccus D. Hendricks Past studies in public health have demonstrated an association between disease and poor sanitation, such as illnesses from exposure to sewage-laden waters. Modern sanitary infrastructures were an innovation that transformed how we mitigate waterborne risks. However, failure to maintain and rehabilitate these systems over the years, as well as changing environmental conditions, have created some pre-modern circumstances in cities across the world including Baltimore,…

Continue reading “Is coronavirus hiding in your sewage system?”

Energy efficiency programs and renewable energy can help address some of the disparities African Americans and other minorities face from fossil fuels, advocates say. But just any clean energy program won’t do. “We know that communities of color are significantly underrepresented, particularly in places where critical decisions are made,” said Fisayo Fadelu, chief financial officer and general counsel for Pecan Street Inc., a clean energy and water research and development…

Continue reading “Clean energy programs can help address some racial disparities, advocates say”

DeVilbiss et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2020;000(0):000–000) have taken on the noble and worthy cause of improving diversity, inclusion, representation, and participation across the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) membership—a reflection/microcosm of society. The objective of this commentary is to underscore the importance of diversity and to offer initiative ideas, which should be centered around inequity stemming from the widespread historical and contemporary maldistribution of power (e.g., decision-making) and resources…

Continue reading “Food for Thought: Opportunities to Improve Diversity, Inclusion, Representation, and Participation in Epidemiology”

In Atlanta, it’s getting hot and traffic is coming back, which means air quality will go downhill. Still, if it seemed like this spring the air was better while so many people were sheltering in place, that’s because it was, at least in some respects. In March, people started staying home because of the coronavirus. In April, it became mandatory statewide. And that had a dramatic effect on traffic. On…

Continue reading “How Shelter-In-Place Orders Affected Atlanta’s Air Pollution”