Consortium for climate risks in the urban northeast (CCRUN)

The overall goal of this NOAA-funded regional integrated science and assessment (RISA) project is to assess the multi-sectoral risks posed by climate for communities stretching from Philadelphia to Boston. The project includes experts on climate modeling, sea level rise, storm surge modeling, water, air pollution and human health. On the health sector team based at BUSPH, researchers are examining patterns of heat-related health risks across the region, providing data of use to policy makers as they target interventions to reduce health impacts.  In related work, we are assessing current and future health risks related to wildfires in a changing climate.

• PI: Kinney

MesoAmerican Nephropathy Occupational Study (MANOS) Investigating an Epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease in Central America

Since 2009, BUSPH researchers have been studying an epidemic of chronic kidney disease (CKD) of unknown etiology (CKDu) in Central America, a disease particularly common among young male manual laborers. MANOS is a longitudinal investigation of occupational risk factors (e.g. pesticides, metals, heat and gene x environment interaction) among ~560 workers in multiple industries (sugarcane, corn, plantains, and construction) in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

• PI: Scammell
• Co-Investigators: Leibler, McClean, and Brooks

Quantifying the adverse health impacts of extreme weather events

Research in this area aims to provide novel insights into the health risks posed by extreme weather events that are expected to become more extreme and/or more frequent with continued climate change. Specifically, we seek to quantify the impacts of a wide array of climate hazards (including extreme heat, high air pollution, tropical cyclones, wildfires) and other disasters on the health of vulnerable populations (including children, pregnant women, older individuals, and those of lower socioeconomic means).

• PI: Wellenius

Evidence to improve heat warning effectiveness in reducing morbidity and mortality

Research in this area aims to provide public health officials across the country with location- specific, health-based evidence as to the effectiveness of heat alerts, and to provide insights into how communities can improve heat action plans to better protect the public’s health on days of extreme heat. This line of research is funded by grants from NIH and the Wellcome Trust.

• PI: Wellenius

Air Quality and Health Benefits Modeling for the Transportation and Climate Initiative

The Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) is a regional collaboration of 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States and the District of Columbia that seeks to improve transportation, develop the clean energy economy, and reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector. The goal of this project is to quantify the public health benefits of alternative TCI policy scenarios. Areas of emphasis include quantifying the health co-benefits due to increases in physical activity, determining the health equity implications of alternative policy options, and contributing to time-sensitive reports given direct connections with pending policy decisions.

• PI: Levy
• Co-investigator: Kinney

Health benefits of green space in cities

This project aims to use Landsat 30 meter remote sensing data to estimate vegetation density, as well as population and baseline rates of cardiovascular mortality and low birth weight, to assess what health benefits can be achieved with exposure to green space in urban environments.

• PI: Kinney
• Co-Investigator: Lane

Building response capacity to extreme heat exposure in Chelsea and East Boston through Participatory Action Research

This project aims to characterize high-risk locations and populations for heat-related illness in Chelsea and the East Boston side of Chelsea Creek, along with mitigating community assets; to determine barriers and opportunities to maintain temperature control among vulnerable residents; and to impact city heat resiliency planning by engaging with city officials and other stakeholders.

• PI: Fabian, Scammell
• Co-Investigators: Levy, Kinney

Few data exist to inform high-priority urban-health objectives such as quantifying existing health burdens at the neighborhood scale, identifying exposure reduction strategies for pollution hot spots, tracking air quality progress, and assessing the long term co-benefits of carbon mitigation strategies. This project utilizes newly available 1×1 km aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals from NASA MODIS satellite products which provides opportunities to construct higher-resolution fine particle (PM_2.5) spatial fields for intra-urban public-health assessments.

• PI: Kinney
• Co-Investigator: Lane

Applications of low-cost sensors for long-term monitoring of PM2.5 and ultrafine particles in urban settings

While low-cost sensors can be valuable in assessing patterns of exposure to PM_2.5 in cities, few sensors are optimal for monitoring long-term averages, the metric most relevant to air pollution-related health burden, and none can readily determine particle composition.  This study is field-testing a low-cost passive sampler (University of North Carolina Passive Aerosol Sampler, UNC-PAS) to measure long-term mass and elemental concentrations of PM_2.5 in urban areas, including a novel application for collecting ultrafine particles.  The latter is being tested in conjunction with ongoing aviation impacts monitoring in Boston.

• PI: Kinney
• Co-Investigator: Lane

Community Measurements of Aviation Emission Contribution to Ambient Air Quality

This project is a long-term multidisciplinary and multi-university research project as part of an FAA-funded Center of Excellence, called the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT, 2013-2023). This project, under ASCENT, focuses on air pollution, with efforts to determine the influence of flight activity on exposures and health outcomes. All work has the overarching aim to inform decisions about intervention strategies that improve public health at least cost, given impacts that include local air quality, noise, and global climate.

• PI: Lane
• Co-Investigator: Levy

Air Pollution and Urbanization Impacts on Cardio-Metabolic Health in India

As part of the Population study of Urban, Rural and Semi-urban Endovascular Disease and holistic intervention study (PURSE-HIS) researchers are using satellite-derived measures of air pollution and the built environment to examine the relationship with adverse health impacts in an 8,000+ person cohort. Additionally, this project is monitoring indoor air pollution among 1500+participants as part of a study to examine an air pollution intervention as the population transitions from solid fuel to liquid petroleum gas as part of a government subsidy program.

• PI: Lane

The Asthma Simulation Tool for Housing and Medication Adherence (ASTHMA)

ASTHMA is a systems science grant that builds off a previous model of the effect of residential environmental exposures on pediatric asthma in low-income multi-family housing. ASTHMA expands to include asthma risk factors related to housing, energy, climate, the built environment and neighborhood stressors. It also links to electronic health records (EHR) at Boston Medical Center to build multidimensional pediatric asthma and lung function models.

• PI: Fabian
• Co-Investigator: Levy

Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing Across the Life Course (CRESSH)

CRESSH includes three fully-integrated research projects applying novel methods in epidemiology, exposure science, and cumulative risk assessment/disparities analysis, with strong community engagement across the Center. CRESSH focuses on multiple health outcomes across the life course with evidence for EHDs (birth outcomes, childhood growth rates, and cardiovascular mortality), in Massachusetts and within two low-income communities (Chelsea and Dorchester), as well as the influence of housing and the neighborhood environment on multiple exposures and health outcomes.

• PI: Levy
• Co-Investigators: Fabian, Scammell, Lane