Environmental Impacts on Human Health

Environments play major roles in influencing our health.

Faculty address the health effects of multiple adverse environmental exposures (e.g., noise, air and water pollution, aeroallergens, radon), climate change, and natural disasters. Others focus on the effects of the built environment on health behaviors and outcomes (e.g., asthma, cancer, cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases, food insecurity, mental health).

Collaborating across disciplines and leveraging the university’s diverse strengths, our researchers are developing prevention and resilience solutions and translating evidence-informed policies, programs, and practices to communities.

We focus on health disparities and inequities, with sensitivity to how impacts stem from and are experienced in social environments. These impacts are often more severe for those with fewer resources, particularly in communities of color and marginalized groups and in low-income settings and populations.

We integrate the expertise of faculty from multiple disciplines and fields, including public health, kinesiology, nutrition, and human development and family sciences.