New research from an interdisciplinary team at the 乱伦社区, Duke University and The Nature Conservancy shows how local temperature increases in the tropics 鈥� compounded by accelerating deforestation 鈥� may already be jeopardizing the well-being and productivity of outdoor workers.
Outdoor workers in the world鈥檚 lower-latitude tropical forests may face a greater risk of heat-related deaths and unsafe working conditions because of deforestation and climate warming, according to a study led by The Nature Conservancy, the 乱伦社区 and Indonesia鈥檚 Mulawarman University. In the study, researchers found that increased temperatures of 0.95 C (1.7 F) in the deforested areas of Berau Regency, Indonesia, between 2002 and 2018 were linked to roughly 118 additional deaths in 2018, and 20 additional…
To better identify and prevent future pandemics, the 乱伦社区 has become a partner in a five-year global, collaborative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The newly launched Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens – Viral Zoonoses, or DEEP VZN project, has approximately $125 million in anticipated funding and will be led by Washington State University. The effort will build scientific capacity in partner countries to safely detect and characterize viruses which have the potential to spill…
When you get into the car of the app-based driver you just tapped up on your phone, you expect and hope the driver and the car are safe and capable of getting you where you need to go. Apps rate drivers, which you can see. But what if the driver is sick? What if the car has a mechanical problem? What if the driver has simply had a bad day? What you may not have realized is that the driver…
The new Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub, led by Oregon State University and the 乱伦社区, will study coastal hazards and community resilience. The National Science Foundation awarded $18.9 million for the hub over five years.
With wildfire smoke forecast聽for next week in Seattle and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Oregon posting rules for keeping workers safe during increasingly smoky conditions and heat in that state, we caught up with a 乱伦社区 expert on worker safety for advice. Check out Professor Baker’s advice on worker safety in this video. Journalists can download the video here. Marissa Baker, an industrial hygiene program director and assistant professor in the UW Department of…
Using data from two large, long-running study projects in the Puget Sound region 鈥� one that began in the late 1970s measuring air pollution and another on risk factors for dementia that began in 1994 鈥� 乱伦社区 researchers identified a link between air pollution and dementia. In the UW-led study, a small increase in the levels of fine particle pollution (PM2.5 or particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or smaller) averaged over a decade at specific addresses in the Seattle…
Washington residents continue to experience a dramatically higher level of food insecurity 鈥� from 10% before the COVID-19 pandemic to 27%, according to the latest 乱伦社区 and Washington State University research on food insecurity and food assistance in the state. The study team also found that need for food assistance has continued to rise. Before COVID-19, about 29% of respondents reported using food assistance. In wave 1 of the survey, food assistance use increased to 33% of respondents;…
Twenty scientists and engineers at the 乱伦社区 are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 announcement. New members were chosen for 鈥渢heir outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.鈥�
With evidence of the health hazards facing children from air pollution growing, The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday published a policy statement meant to bring those hazards to light and to encourage and direct policy to improve children鈥檚 health. Policy co-author Dr. Catherine Karr, a professor in the 乱伦社区鈥檚 School of Public Health and School of Medicine, said because pediatric care providers are trusted advisers on healthy practices for prevention, they have an important role in getting…
As the city of Seattle shut down in March 2020 to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, a group of 乱伦社区 researchers decided to track how the city would react.
When exploring data on Washington workers during the pandemic 鈥� demographics, working conditions, wages and benefits, and risks of exposure to disease 鈥� the authors of a new report found that women hold two-thirds of the jobs in the harshest category of work. 鈥淭he big takeaway from our research,鈥� said David West, a co-author of the report and an analyst at the Washington Labor Education and Research Center, 鈥渋s how particularly women are working under precarious conditions 鈥� a large…
UW researchers developed a project that scans the streets every few weeks to document how Seattle has reacted to the pandemic and what recovery looks like.
Dr. Sverre Vedal, UW professor emeritus of environmental and health sciences, served on an expert committee for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine studying the long-term respiratory health impacts of military service in Southeast Asia.
For nearly 50 years, a statistical omission tantamount to data falsification sat undiscovered in a critical study at the heart of regulating one of the most controversial and widely used pesticides in America. Chlorpyrifos, an insecticide created in the late 1960s by the Dow Chemical Co., has been linked to serious health problems,聽especially in children. It has been the subject of many lawsuits and banned in Europe and California. The EPA itself nearly banned the chemical, but in 2017 the…
A new online survey for Washington state residents has launched to gather data on how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn have affected food access and economic security. The Washington State Food Security Survey, which went live June 18 and runs through July 31, is open to all Washington state residents aged 18 or over.
It could take another generation before resident fish in the heavily polluted Lower Duwamish Waterway in Seattle will be safe to eat. Yet many fishers from a wide range of cultural backgrounds continue to fish the 5-mile stretch of river for fun, cultural connections and food even as cleanup of this designated Superfund site continues. The Duwamish was listed on the Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 National Priority (or 鈥淪uperfund鈥�) List of sites that require cleanup in 2001. Since that time, federal,…
About three-quarters of U.S. workers, or 108 million people, are in jobs that cannot be done from home during a pandemic, putting these workers at increased risk of exposure to disease. This majority of workers are also at higher risk for other job disruptions such as layoffs, furloughs or hours reductions, a 乱伦社区 study shows. Such job disruptions can cause stress, anxiety and other mental health outcomes that could persist even as the United States reopens its economic…
Meat processing plants face challenges in keeping workers safe during the pandemic. Carrie Freshour, a UW assistant professor of geography, and Marissa Baker, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences聽and an expert on worker safety related to infectious diseases, provides comments on what the industry can do to protect workers.
The dean of the UW School of Public Health shares information about using face coverings, including what kinds of masks are appropriate to wear and how they protect people.
Beginning May 18, King County is聽directing聽people to wear face coverings in most public settings. Expert Hilary Godwin answers questions about the directive and shares information about using face coverings.
Research projects funded for 2020 by EarthLab’s Innovation Grants Program will study how vegetation might reduce pollution, help an Alaskan village achieve safety and resilience amid climate change, organize a California river’s restoration with tribal involvement, compare practices in self-managed indigenous immigrant communities and more.
As the push to relax social and economic restrictions for combating the pandemic gain traction, we need to understand personal motives behind what many experts consider a dangerous rush to 鈥渞eopen” and how to protect workers most at risk when communities do 鈥済o back to work.鈥� Three UW experts weigh in.
A new study looks at temperature increases in counties across the United States where crops are grown. It also looks at different strategies the industry could adopt to protect workers鈥� health.
Only about 25% of the U.S. workforce 鈥� some 35.6 million people 鈥� are in jobs that can easily be done at home, a 乱伦社区 researcher has determined, as these are the positions in which using a computer is important but interacting with the public is not. These jobs are typically in highly-paid occupational sectors such finance, administration, management, computers, engineering and technology. Consequently 颅鈥� with orders to close businesses and demands that employees work from home growing…
乱伦社区 researchers have launched the King County COVID-19 Community Study 鈥� or KC3S 鈥� to gather data through April 19 on how individuals and communities throughout King County are coping with the measures put in place to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
A new study led by the 乱伦社区 finds dramatic increases in the abundance of a worm that can be transmitted to humans who eat raw or undercooked seafood. Its 283-fold increase in abundance since the 1970s could have implications for the health of humans and marine mammals, which both can inadvertently eat the worm.
A 乱伦社区 researcher calculates that 14.4 million workers face exposure to infection once a week and 26.7 million at least once a month in the workplace, pointing to an important population needing protection as the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, continues to break out across the U.S. Marissa Baker, an assistant professor in the UW School of Public Health, based her calculations on research she published in 2018 in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. In that paper, Baker…
While travel bans are frequently used to stop the spread of an emerging infectious disease, a new 乱伦社区 and Johns Hopkins University study of published research found that the effectiveness of travel bans is mostly unknown.
In the decade-long absence of federal action, many states, counties and cities have increased minimum wages to help improve the lives of workers. While political debate over these efforts has long been contentious, scientific research on the health effects of raising the minimum wage is relatively new. Some studies have found higher minimum wages associated with positive health outcomes, with little evidence that minimum wages harm health. However, a new study by researchers at the 乱伦社区 found…
Recent honors to UW faculty and staff include the new editorship of a major journal, a post with the Republic of Uganda and honors from the American College of Physicians, the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Communities underneath and downwind of jets landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are exposed to a type of ultrafine particle pollution that is distinctly associated with aircraft, according to a new 乱伦社区 study, the first to identify the unique signature of aircraft emissions in the state of Washington. The finding comes from the two-year Mobile ObserVations of Ultrafine Particles or 鈥淢OV-UP鈥� study funded by the Washington State Legislature to examine the air-quality impacts of aircraft traffic on communities located…
Sparked by a grant from the聽UW Population Health Initiative,聽the UW鈥檚 Center for One Health Research has created a series of pop-up聽galleries featuring autobiographical photographs made by people experiencing homelessness with their animal companions. The first gallery was Oct. 4 in UW’s Red Square. Other pop-up gallery events are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, at Occidental Square聽in Seattle鈥檚 Pioneer Square district; Oct. 10 in Seattle鈥檚 Cal Anderson Park; and Oct. 13 in the Ballard Commons Park. The…
The terms and conditions of your employment 鈥� including your pay, hours, schedule flexibility and job security 鈥� influence your overall health as well as your risk of being injured on the job, according to new research from the 乱伦社区. The analysis takes a comprehensive approach to show that the overall pattern of employment conditions is important for health, beyond any single measure of employment, such as wages or contract type. “This research is part of a growing…
Air pollution鈥攅specially ozone air pollution which is increasing with climate change鈥攁ccelerates the progression of emphysema of the lung, according to a new study led by the 乱伦社区, Columbia University and the University at Buffalo.
A new study found that pregnant women exposed to higher levels of air pollutants had children with lower IQs, compared to the children of women exposed to lower levels.聽
Eight scientists and engineers from the 乱伦社区 have been elected this year to the Washington State Academy of Sciences.
The planet will warm by about 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century if the U.S. and other nations meet only their current commitments under the Paris climate agreement to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases. According to a paper by U.S. and U.K. scientists published in Science Advances today, accelerating ambition to reduce global warming emissions to meet the Paris Agreement鈥檚 goal of limiting temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius could prevent thousands of extreme heat-related deaths in cities across the U.S.
Sea-level rise associated with climate change is a concern for many island and coastal communities. While the dangers may seem far off for large coastal cities like Miami or New Orleans, the advancing oceans are already displacing some small indigenous communities, and many others are at risk around the world.
Exposure to glyphosate 鈥� the world鈥檚 most widely used, broad-spectrum herbicide and the primary ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup 鈥� increases the risk of some cancers by more than 40 percent, according to new research from the 乱伦社区.