Air Quality

Sarah Smith, Clean Air Task Force’s Super Pollutants Program Director, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). She will be instrumental in driving their 2030 Vision that aims to put the world on a pathway that rapidly reduces warming the near-term while maximizing development, health, environmental and food security benefits.

It is abundantly clear that climate change is not a future event; it is happening now, and it affects our lives, and our health. In a new report from The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, Fellow Laura Bozzi and Robert Dubrow tracked 19 indicators on climate change and health in Connecticut across four broad categories — temperature, extreme events, infectious diseases, and air quality — and found disturbing trends in each.

For people who live or work close to major roadways, air pollution — particularly ultrafine particles from vehicle exhaust — can pose a serious health threat. In this episode, Christina Fuller, an environmental epidemiologist and assistant professor in the School of Public Health, discusses her research on ultrafine particles in metro Atlanta and the role that trees may play in protecting urban residents.

Zully Juarez and team have published an article in IJERPH about the program they implemented that incorporated air monitoring and storytelling with youth in environmental justice organizations around the Los Angeles area.

Plenty of Atlantans spend time on highways, speeding or inching or swerving along. But many people spend a lot of time near the highways, too: at their homes, schools or workplaces. And that’s not great for their health. So Fellow Christina Fuller, a Georgia State University public health professor, is studying how effectively trees can help filter out some of that pollution.