Environmental & Public Health

In cities around the country, if you want to understand the history of a neighborhood, you might want to do the same thing you'd do to measure human health: Check its temperature. That's what a group of researchers did, and they found that neighborhoods with higher temperatures were often the same ones subjected to discriminatory, race-based housing practices nearly a century ago.

Zully Juarez and team have published an article in IJERPH about the program they implemented that incorporated air monitoring and storytelling with youth in environmental justice organizations around the Los Angeles area.

Continental-scale risks from climate change affect both regional communities and country dynamics across the world, with climate models forecasting an average global temperature rise of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. This rise in global temperatures may increase South American environmental security risks through sea level rise, changing weather patterns, and extreme storms—ultimately influencing the security and health of citizens.

Through this Switzer Leadership Grant, Lauren Richter contributed as a key member of the Silent Spring Institute PFAS research team. PFAS are a class of extremely persistent synthetic chemicals common in nonstick, stain-resistant, and waterproof consumer products and widely found in drinking water of millions of Americans. Lauren led community workshops on PFAS at regional and national conferences, investigated the public costs of PFAS drinking water contamination on Cape Cod, and provided expert testimony at hearings on PFAS bills before state legislative committees in Rhode Island.

Teniope Adewumi-Gunn's research on the impact of beauty products on black women's health was featured on a recent Inside the Issues segment. Watch the segment (Adewumi-Gunn starts around 37:37)

Legal education isn’t just about scholarship. At Berkeley Law, it’s also about action—especially on issues as urgent as global warming—with students driving vital climate work across campus.

A new study co-authored by Fellow Kendra Klein shows that the class of insecticides called neonicotinoids poses significant threats to insects, soil and water. In an op-ed with Anna Lappé for The Guardian, Klein writes that the war we are waging against nature with toxic pesticides must end.

Matt Dixit Moffa was the Planning Project Director for the Trust for Public Land on the recently completed Health Parks Plan for Travis, Bastrop and Caldwell Counties in Texas. Read the report

Results from a recent study examining what's in organic versus conventional milk show that the majority of samples of conventional, non-organic milk tested positive for certain low, chronic levels of pesticides, illegal antibiotics and growth hormones. The organic samples tested at either much lower or non-existent rates in comparison.