Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Public Health
Improving an Integrative Framework of Health System Resilience and Climate Change: Lessons from Bangladesh and Haiti
Published: 2024-10-10
Subjects: Public Health
The analysis of health system resilience has progressed significantly, yet there remains a wide diversity in the conceptual frameworks used. The ClimHB conceptual framework, developed in 2019, integrates two influential models: the Levesque model of healthcare access and DFID's resilience framework. Designed to study health system resilience in response to climate-induced events, the ClimHB [...]
From bench to beach: Assessing the reliability of community-based qPCR monitoring for recreational water quality
Published: 2024-10-09
Subjects: Public Health
Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is increasingly used in recreational water quality monitoring, yet the temporal variability of indicator concentrations as well as the breadth of locations and biological hazards to be monitored continues to present a challenge. Participatory approaches such as community-based monitoring (CBM) are valued in environmental research but the potential for [...]
The impacts of climate hazards on sanitation experiences of people with disabilities in Bangladesh: A mixed-methods study
Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Public Health
Human-induced climate change, marked by frequent and severe climate hazards, damages water and sanitation facilities, limiting safe and independent access for people with disabilities. In Bangladesh, where 8% of the population has a disability, the challenges are heightened by climate hazards, including cyclones and floods. Evidence on how these hazards affect the sanitation experiences of [...]
Heatwaves and Hostilities - Can rising temperatures lead to lasting peace?
Published: 2024-09-13
Subjects: Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, International and Area Studies, Nature and Society Relations, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
In this paper, we are going to explore the complex relationship between climate change and global peace. Climate change and wars have a reciprocal relationship. As the war fuels climate change, the latter can catalyze the war too. Through the analysis of the ongoing conflicts across the world, recent technological advancements, and the globalized nature of the world, we will review different [...]
Elevated Methane in Massachusetts and Rhode Island Homes Using Fracked Gas
Published: 2024-09-11
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Public Health
We surveyed 197 Massachusetts and Rhode Island houses ranging in building style and age to test whether homes served by fracked gas have higher indoor methane concentrations ([CH4]) than in homes without gas. The answer is clearly “Yes”. From basements and single-floor slab homes to third floors of triple deckers, indoor [CH4] in households with gas service was significantly elevated over outdoor [...]
Inadequate wastewater management in Dhaka's major hospitals: A Socio-Technical Systems (STS) analysis of leadership, policy, and technological challenges
Published: 2024-08-06
Subjects: Public Health
Unsafe hospital wastewater is a significant concern, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the health impact is often underreported. Socio-technical systems (STS) theory, which examines the interplay between social and technical elements within complex systems, is widely used in developed countries but rarely applied in LMIC hospitals. We employed STS theory to evaluate the [...]
Evaluating estimation methods for wildfire smoke and their implications for assessing health effects
Published: 2024-06-13
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Public Health
Growing wildfire smoke represents a substantial threat to air quality and human health in the US and across much of the globe. However, the impact of wildfire smoke on human health remains imprecisely understood, due to uncertainties in both the measurement of population wildfire smoke exposure and dose-response functions linking exposure to health. Here, we compare daily wildfire smoke-related [...]
“Is my tap water safe to drink?”: assessing a national sample of Consumer Confidence Reports for public health communication
Published: 2024-05-03
Subjects: Public Health
The Environmental Protection Agency requires that public water systems create an annual report for their customers. This report is known as a “Consumer Confidence Report” (CCR) and was claimed to be the “centerpiece” of consumer right-to-know under the Safe Drinking Water Act. However, previous research indicates that CCRs are not understandable to members of the American public; as such, they [...]
THE STATUS OF NOISE POLLUTION OF SUST CAMPUS, SYLHET, BANGLADESH: A GIS-BASED NOISE MAPPING
Published: 2024-04-24
Subjects: Public Health
This study investigates the status of noise pollution at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) campus in Sylhet, Bangladesh, employing a GIS-based approach to map and analyze noise levels across different areas of the campus. The research was motivated by the growing concern over environmental noise as a public health issue, particularly in educational settings, where it can [...]
Wildfire smoke exposure and mortality burden in the US under future climate change
Published: 2024-03-12
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Wildfire activity has increased in the US and is projected to accelerate under future climate change. However, our understanding of the impacts of climate change on wildfire smoke and health remains highly uncertain. Here we quantify the mortality burden in the US due to wildfire smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5) under future climate change. We construct an ensemble of statistical and machine [...]
Exposure to Climate Events and Mental Health: Risk and Protective Factors from the California Health Interview Survey
Published: 2024-02-22
Subjects: Public Health
There is increasing awareness of the effects of climate change on mental health, but more work on understanding risk and protective factors is needed. The 2021 California Health Interview Survey included new questions about exposure to extreme weather events and mental health responses. This study aims to identify how individual factors and neighborhood social cohesion are associated with [...]
Natural occurrence of asbestos in serpentinite quarries from Southern Spain.
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Public Health
The nevado-filábride complex (NFC) (southern Spain) is well known for its widespread mining and quarrying activities. Serpentinite and metabasite rocks are extracted, processed and traded as building and ornamental stones. Due to the possible presence of natural occurrence of asbestos (NOA) in these rocks, the aim of this paper is to conduct an in-depth characterisation of fibrous minerals. To [...]
Designing and describing climate change impact attribution studies: a guide to common approaches
Published: 2024-01-06
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Studies, Human Geography, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Probability, Public Health, Spatial Science, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
Impact attribution is an emerging transdisciplinary sub-discipline of detection and attribution, focused on the social, economic, and ecological impacts of climate change. Here, we provide an overview of common end-to-end frameworks in impact attribution, focusing on examples relating to the human health impacts of climate change. We propose a typology of study designs based on whether [...]
Comprehensive review of the annual haze episode in Northern Thailand
Published: 2023-12-09
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Public Health
The mountainous part of northern Thailand is subject to an intense haze episode occurring almost every year between January and May. In the last couple of decades, this atmospheric phenomenon has been extensively covered in the media and is now a main concern for the population living in this area. In this review, we synthesized the information available from hundreds of publications on air [...]
Factors influencing access to safely managed sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review protocol
Published: 2023-11-02
Subjects: Public Health
Introduction Several interventions have been implemented to improve access for all to safely managed sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since the beginning of the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015. However, consolidated evidence on how such interventions worked or not worked remains limited. The proposed systematic review aims to synthesis evidence on how, why and under which [...]