Environmental & Public Health

For decades, Black people in this country have felt the heavy toll of environmental racism. A study published by University of Michigan in 2016 shows that communities of color and low-income neighborhoods are targeted by polluting industries. The Takeaway spoke with Switzer Fellow Christina Fuller on the issue.

Meredith Niles and co-authors conducted a Northern New England survey in March-June of 2021 to understand the initial and continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security, health behaviors, and health outcomes. A total of 988 adults (562 in Maine and 426 in Vermont) responded regarding food access and availability, health behaviors such as diet composition and exercise, and use of habit-forming substances (e.g. alcohol, tobacco, etc.) before and in the year following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Key findings include:

“It’s both an exciting and daunting time to step into this role,” Colleen said. “Bold action on the climate crisis is urgently needed. I’m humbled to have this opportunity to expand the center’s collaborations with frontline communities, policymakers and others to help advance solutions.”

“This really has to do with discriminatory planning processes in which communities of color and low-income communities are often located near ports, major roadways and distribution centers, and so therefore are disproportionately exposed to diesel exhaust,” Regan says.

Scientists are working to understand "the chaotic cascade of dynamics that causes a dust storm to initiate a particular point in space and a particular point in time," says Thomas Gill.

Grant's new role will help implement a new environmental justice law passed in Washington, the HEAL Act, and join an interagency environmental justice council.

Nithya Ramanathan's organization Nexleaf Analytics is one of the recipients of new grants for innovative data- and AI-driven approaches that support digital transformation of health systems and healthcare across the globe.

Three Rivers Waterkeeper has nominated the Monongahela River (the Mon) for Pennsylvania's River of the Year, with a $10,000 prize for holding events to celebrate the river if won.

This three-year project, dubbed Toxic Tides, is the first systematic look at the environmental justice ramifications of sea level rise and hazardous sites along the entire coast of California.