Geohealth最新文献

The contribution of occupational exposures to the extent of cumulative environmental impacts, and their implications for environmental justice (EJ), have not been investigated. We (a) characterized communities with cumulatively high occupational and environmental exposures, (b) examined whether marginalized, historically redlined neighborhoods were disproportionately affected by these exposures, and (c) evaluated the implications of failing to consider workplace exposures in EJ screening tools in Michigan. At the census tract-level, we combined occupational exposure estimates of six common workplace hazards, environmental exposures from EJScreen and the National Transportation Noise Map, demographic information from the American Community Survey, and redlining information from the 1930s Home Owners' Loan Corporation maps to test the first two objectives using supervised and unsupervised statistical methods. The last objective incorporated the occupational indicators into the Michigan-specific EJ screening tool (MiEJScreen) to test the third objective. Among 2,772 Michigan census tracts, 738 (27%) had cumulatively high occupational and environmental exposures, primarily in urban areas. Tracts with >90% (compared to <10%) of racial and ethnic minority individuals had 2.31 (95% CI: 1.78–3.03) times higher odds of cumulatively high exposures. A simultaneous increase to the 90th percentile (relative to the 50th) in all 13 occupational and environmental exposures was associated with 2.47 (95% CI: 1.20–5.36) times higher odds of a tract having been historically redlined. Not incorporating occupational exposures into the MiEJScreen would overlook 90 census tracts with cumulatively high environmental and occupational impacts, affecting around 255,000 individuals. Ignoring occupational exposures in cumulative environmental impact assessments may overlook important EJ hotspots.

The spread of malaria is a major health burden, which affects many people in Africa, depends on climate but also socio-economic conditions. Thus, it is important to gauge the impact of anthropogenic global warming on malaria and attribute anthropogenic causes. Here we compute the Time Of Emergence of vector density and of the entomological inoculation rate (EIR) in the SSP3-7.0 scenario using 50 bias-corrected members of Community Earth System Model version 2 Large Ensemble simulations. This reveals that vector density, which depends on climate conditions, and EIR, which depends on both climate and population density, will rise significantly and permanently above the pre-industrial background variability due to anthropogenic causes in Africa. Both the vector density and EIR have areas, mainly in central Africa, where anthropogenic causes have already significantly changed, and many more areas will experience anthropogenic caused changes in the period 2030–2050 and toward the end of this century. Our simulations also show clear evidence that extremes of vector density and EIR increase in the future by almost 100%, suggesting that major malaria epidemic outbreaks will become much more likely. We also perform simulations with constant population and with no global warming which partly reveal underlying malaria dynamics. Our results highlight the need to prepare for an expansion and intensification of the malaria burden if no health interventions are being taken.

Globally gridded precipitation products (GGPPs) are commonly used in impact assessments as substitutes for weather station data, each with unique strengths and limitations. Reanalysis products are among the most widely used for driving impact models, evaluating climate models, or bias-correcting and downscaling model outputs to generate climate change projections. However, they are often outperformed in accuracy by other GGPPs, particularly in tropical regions, including areas of the Global South. Therefore, we assessed the utility and suitability of GGPPs for climate and health research by examining how differences and uncertainties in these products affect area-level precipitation estimates, often used in health studies when epidemiological data are linked to administrative units. We compared reanalysis (ERA5/-Land) with satellite-based (CHIRPS, PERSIANN-CDR) and interpolated gauge-based products (CRUTS, GPCC), each a viable candidate to serve as reference climatology in climate change impact assessments. We focused on seasonal patterns, disease-related bioclimatic variables, and climate change-relevant indices, such as the number of wet or dry periods. Our findings revealed substantial variation in the accuracy of local precipitation estimates across GGPPs, with differences in maximum pixel precipitation values exceeding 75% between ERA5-Land and CHIRPS. These differences in GGPPs translated into area-level precipitation and, consequently, in vector carrying capacity estimates, demonstrating their impact on health assessments. Our analysis focused on Brazil and Colombia, two diverse countries differing for example, in orography, climate, and size. Each product was evaluated against national station data. Our results indicate that estimating tropical precipitation is particularly challenging for reanalysis, while CHIRPS demonstrated the best overall performance.

The objective of this scoping review is to explore the systemic barriers that impact health inequities among vulnerable populations (e.g., racial/ethnic and gender groups, people with disabilities, refugees, immigrants, elders, young children, agricultural and fishery workers, and low-income individuals) when facing climate change stressors. We conducted an extensive review using nine search engines, which yielded 21 publications that focused on the health outcomes and barriers on the topic of climate change among vulnerable populations. Our findings indicated that poverty is the largest challenge preventing people from adequate health access and achieving positive outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations globally. In addition, institutional and systemic barriers also differ based on regional differences, which suggests that health inequities are context dependent. Our scoping review has implications for (a) enhancing the effectiveness of climate change mitigation strategies and (b) addressing the healthcare barriers of vulnerable populations based on country-specific challenges.

The unprecedented demographic shifts toward an aging population pose significant challenges to global healthcare systems. Understanding the heterogeneity in disease prevalence among the elderly is crucial for effective public health strategies. Using prevalence data of 85 types of age-related diseases, we calculated the global heterogeneity of disease distribution by the Shannon Diversity Index (SHDI). We observed significant geographic variations in disease heterogeneity, with higher SHDI values in high-income Western countries such as the United States of America and Sweden and lower in South Asia and Oceania (p < 0.05). In 2021, SHDI values in elderly populations (age ≥60 years) for Europe and North America countries were an average of 1.12 times higher than in Oceania. While SHDI increases toward higher ages (for instance, in 2021, SHDI for adults above 95 years is 1.06 times higher than for ages between 60 and 64 years), the global SHDI tends to decrease nonlinearly over time. From 1990 to 2021, global age-standardized SHDI (age ≥60 years) averagely decreased by 1.2% for both men and women. Our analysis further revealed that socio-economic factors (e.g., socio-demographic indices, governance) strongly impacted global SHDI changes, while climatic and environmental factors (e.g., extreme climate and air pollution) showed significant differences across genders. Our study highlights the need for implementing comprehensive healthcare strategies, focusing on reducing health disparities and addressing environmental and socio-economic determinants to address inequalities in age-related diseases effectively.

During the first two decades of the 21st century, the level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution in urban atmospheric particulate matter (PM) in China significantly increased. By combining data from more than 6,695 individual samples covering 89 typical cities (population > 0.5 million people) across China, this study focuses on evaluating the health risks to urban residents and the ecological risks to the surrounding environment from PAHs in PM using the methods of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and sediment quality standards. The PAH contents and contamination levels in Central China (CC) were lower than those in South China (SC) and North China (NC). NC exhibited the most severe PAH pollution and greatest ecological risk, while CC had the highest population density and gross domestic product. The incremental lifetime cancer risk and hazard index values for people in NC were greater than those for people in CC and SC, and the health risk increased with increasing latitude. Based on ecological risk criteria and standard assessment methods, PAHs in PM in China pose a potential ecological risk, and the risk of harmful biological effects follows the order of NC > CC > SC. Given the significant risks of PAHs to people, animals and plants at both the national and global scales, under the guidance of the One Health concept of the World Health Organization, it is necessary to comprehensively manage PAHs in PM and reduce their threats to humans and ecosystems.

Wildfire smoke and extreme heat events are worsening in California, but their combined health effects are not well understood. This study estimates joint effects of extreme heat and wildfire smoke on hospitalizations in California, 2011–2020. We used a case crossover design with time-stratified controls and conditional logistic regression to estimate these effects at multiplicative and additive scales. Exposures were assessed for 16 combinations of exposure lags (0–3 days) for extreme heat and wildfire influenced fine particulate matter. Among over 28 million cases of all-natural cause morbidity, the majority were adults aged 65 and older (41.4%), English speakers (85.1%), and White, non-Hispanic (49.7%), mostly residing in urban areas (97.2%). The study found roughly 8% of respiratory morbidities (95% CI, 2.4%–13.8%) were attributable to the interaction of wildfire smoke and extreme heat. Significant joint effects were also observed for cardiovascular (5.5%) and renal morbidities (6.2%). Subgroup analyses revealed stronger effects: Respiratory (19.2%, 95% CI 6.5%–32.1%) and cerebrovascular morbidities (15.7%, 95% CI 4%–27.4%) were most pronounced in Black individuals; older adults (50–64 years) showed strong effects for renal morbidities (15.4%, 95% CI −1.6%−32.6%); and cardiovascular effects were highest among females (9.8%, 95% CI 2.9%–16.7%). Effects on all-natural cause morbidity were generally null. The interaction of wildfire smoke and extreme heat within a short exposure window (4 days) increases hospitalizations; highlighting the need for joint heat and wildfire smoke interventions that target populations at greater risk.

Dust storms are recurring atmospheric phenomena in arid and semiarid regions that decrease air quality and pose significant health risks. However, there is still no consensus on why some dust storms are more toxic than others. To understand the influence of dust on particle size and composition, in vitro experiments were performed evaluating the impact of five different clay minerals: montmorillonites (montmorillonite, Na-rich montmorillonite, and Ca-rich montmorillonite), illite, and kaolinite on human epithelial alveolar cells (A549) utilizing the Single-Cell Analysis. Unlike other population techniques, this analysis monitors each cell individually by coupling fluorescent microscopy with an incubation system to continuously image the cells every 15 min for 48-hr. This live-cell imaging analysis was used to calculate the exact time of death, division rate, and type of death (apoptosis and necrosis). Ca-rich Montmorillonite and Kaolinite were the most and least toxic clays, respectively. Although Ca-rich Montmorillonite caused a significant increase in cell death and a decrease in cell proliferation compared to Kaolinite, both clays had a similar impact on the type of death (necrosis replaced apoptosis as the primary mechanism for cell death). Observations on the exact time of death show a significant increase in the rate of death between 34- and 48-hr post-exposure indicating a possible delay in health impact.

With climate change contributing to an increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events like wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes, there is a growing need for coordinated research efforts to understand the impact of these events on human health. Specialized research frameworks can help interdisciplinary teams organize and visualize complex exposure-health pathways, identify knowledge gaps, and enhance coordination and communication across diverse groups of stakeholders. This article describes the development and application of a conceptual framework for wildfire-related exposures and human health outcomes. This framework serves as a tool for integrating data resources and mapping known and hypothesized connections, between complex wildfire exposures and human health outcomes, across the lifecycle of a wildland urban interface (WUI) fire. We also demonstrate the utility and flexibility of this framework for disaster research settings through two example applications. The first demonstrates an application for studying WUI fires and respiratory health outcomes, and the second example shows how the framework can be expanded to visualize exposure and health modeling with potential biomarkers of exposure and effect. Our GeoHealth Framework for WUI Fires illustrates complex linkages between wildfire related exposures and health outcomes and highlights areas for future study. Given the destruction and complexity of WUI fires, this framework provides an important resource that can assist with evaluating these complex exposure-health relationships, guiding and coordinating data collection, and informing communities and decision-makers to improve response, recovery, and future preparedness for such events in the United States and globally.

The Salton Sea, California's largest lake, is undergoing significant environmental degradation, which has adverse health effects on nearby rural communities, primarily Latinx and Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian. Over the past two decades, the lake's water levels have steadily dropped. Water conditions in the Sea, characterized by low oxygen and high nutrient levels, favor the production of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). This study investigates the connection between the Sea's changing conditions, particularly the worsening water quality, and H₂S emissions using air quality and water quality data collected since 2013 and 2004, respectively. H₂S concentrations often exceed California's air quality standards, particularly in areas near the Sea during summer months. Wind patterns substantially impact detection of H₂S. When wind is blowing from the Sea toward communities with sensors, located to the northwest of the Sea, H₂S is detected significantly more often. Current monitoring efforts underestimate the frequency and distribution of H₂S that exceeds air quality standards. An air sensor deployed in shallow water over the Salton Sea by a community science program detected substantially higher concentrations of H₂S, particularly when wind was blowing over exposed sediment and shallow water, suggesting that these are a significant and overlooked H₂S source at the Salton Sea. These findings highlight the need for improved air quality monitoring and more effective environmental management policies to protect public health in the region. The study emphasizes the importance of community-led solutions and provides insights relevant to other regions experiencing similar environmental crises.