Environmental & Public Health

New strains of illnesses and resulting infectious disease outbreaks are on the rise around the globe, Brown University researchers discovered after analyzing data from the last 33 years. Bruised as your eyes feel after reading that, also know there’s a general trend whereby each outbreak affects fewer people (the current Ebola crisis excepted). ...

Dr. Christina Hemphill Fuller, assistant professor of Environmental Health at the Georgia State University School of Public Health, has been named as a JPB Environmental Health Fellow by the Harvard School of Public Health. The new fellowship program is designed to provide a multidisciplinary training experience to junior faculty, with a focus on research into how the social and physical environment interact to influence health, especially in disadvantaged communities.

The research of Thomas Gill of the University of Texas at El Paso Department of Geological Sciences. Gill is studying dust, and has found that the tiniest speck of dust can impact health, the environment, and infrastructure. The shape of a dust particle has even been found to have an impact on the climate. Listen to an NPR interview about his research

From the American Journal of Public Health: The Drinking Water Disparities Framework: On the Origins and Persistence of Inequities in Exposure Carolina L. Balazs, PhD, and Isha Ray, PhDAt the time of research, both authors were with Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley. Contributors

Kendra Klein has co-authored a report on redefining healthy food in the health care for Health Care Without Harm. Healthy food cannot be defined by nutritional quality alone. It is the end result of a food system that conserves and renews natural resources, advances social justice and animal welfare, builds community wealth, and fulfills the food and nutrition needs of all eaters now and into the future.

Why is Isella Ramirez’s environmental justice work so personal? She grew up in Commerce and, while she expresses her love for her community, she also knows first-hand what it is like living in a toxic environment. Situated in the midst of a major transportation hub, Isella, her 6-year old niece Citlalih, and neighbors are surrounded by the busy l-710 freeway that accommodates up to 260,000 cars and over 40,000 diesel trucks on a daily basis, rail yards, and blocks and blocks of industries reliant on the freeways and rail yards.