Heat Waves Are Scorching Boston, but Are Some Neighborhoods Hotter than Others?
The heat island effect means some parts of the city warm up more than others when summer temperatures soar. While parks and other areas with green space and greater tree cover provide shade, and cool the air through evaporation and transpiration, the dark roofs and asphalt of densely developed areas absorb and radiate the sun’s heat. Despite its diversity of environments, Boston decides whether it’s in a heat wave from temperature readings at just one site: Boston Logan International Airport.
A Clear Path through Murky Waters: Alum Finds Meaningful Career Studying Water Contamination
Upon finishing her PhD in environmental health at the School of Public Health, Beth Haley (SPH’24) moved to Oregon, drawn, she says, to the vast natural landscapes more commonly found out West. As a post-doctoral researcher with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Haley aims to tackle threats to water quality specific to the Pacific Northwest. Beth Haley’s PhD dissertation in environmental health linked sewage overflows with illness in Massachusetts and now her current post-doctoral research with the Environmental Protection Agency aims to tackle water quality in Pacific coastal areas.
Creating and Managing Rental Registries: Cities’ Experiences and Exploring Use of Lived Experience to Evaluate Impact
According to HUD’s American Healthy Homes Survey II, 22.3 million housing units in the U.S. have one or more significant lead-based paint hazards. Many unsafe housing units are in disadvantaged neighborhoods where most people rent their homes and may be unable to afford better, safer housing. For a city’s most vulnerable residents, a rental registry with proactive inspections is a lifeline.
Sewage discharges increase risk of hospital visits for residents near Merrimack River, study finds
People living in communities along the Merrimack River are at increased risk of developing acute gastrointestinal illnesses in the days following large combined sewer overflows, according to a study from researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Heat waves can be deadly for older adults: An aging global population and rising temperatures mean millions are at risk
Regardless of where or when a heat wave strikes, one pattern has been a constant: Older adults are the most likely to die from extreme heat, and the crisis is worsening. Our research documents two global trends that together portend a dire future.
Solving urban health problems from a global perspective
Boston has experienced more hot days and nights in the last ten years than ever before. And Boston University students are looking for solutions. In fall 2023, students in CAS SO490: “Politics of Global Health,” a MetroBridge course, investigated methods to mitigate climate issues like extreme heat, storm water, and coastal flooding in cities in the US and around the world in order to address the problem in Greater Boston.
Muppets from Sesame Workshop help explain opioid addiction to young children
Tevis Simon grew up in West Baltimore back in the 1980s, a neighborhood that lacked attention from the city and investment from the government. From day to day, she was never sure what version of her mother she’d encounter. “I knew that if my mom had her drugs, that she was fun, mommy. And if she didn’t, then she was mean mommy,” Simon says.
The idea of ‘tree equity’ is taking root
Founded in 2018, Speak for the Trees has been hosting their “tree walks” to talk about the benefits of trees, and to look at where there should be more of them. It’s an issue of equity. Trees provide a wide range of benefits, from filtering out air pollution to improving mental health — but not everyone gets to feel those benefits. From neighborhood to neighborhood, or even street to street, there are often wide disparities in the number of trees, which can have a broad impact on the overall health of a community. On a local, state and national level, though, governments and nonprofits are investing to make up the gap as the concept of “tree equity” is beginning to take root.
February 2023 Spotlight – Judith C. Scott, PhD
My primary research interest focuses on how trauma such as physical child maltreatment and racism (interpersonal and structural), protective processes including ethnic-racial socialization and coping, and contextual factors affects parenting and mental health among families across cultures. However, it was my secondary research interest in program evaluation that led to my interest in Asian children and families. Right before I started as faculty at Boston University, a community organization, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, sent a request for an agency-level and community-level program evaluation. During the two-year evaluation, through talks with BCNC staff and reading existing literature, I realized that I rarely read about the perspectives and experiences of Chinese immigrant families living in low-income communities in relation to parenting.
Policing Health
Well before #DefundThePolice went viral, abolitionist activists and scholars had been calling for the redirection of funds from the criminal legal system into a broad set of nonpunitive community resources. Prior research has illustrated the expansive role police currently play in responding to social problems and health emergencies that could be addressed in other ways. To test this premise, we embarked on a study that asked whether a greater investment in social programs might reduce community reliance on police.