Through the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, Center member Jane Clougherty, MSc, ScD, professor in the Drexel University Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, was awarded more than $1 million dollars in funding from the EPA.
Called the Cumulative Health Impacts at the Intersection of Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and Vulnerable Populations/Lifestages: Community-Based Research for Solutions Grants, they fund community-based research to investigate how climate change may compound potentially adverse environmental conditions and stressors in underserved communities.
Dr. Clougherty’s Project: Understanding Pediatric Susceptibility Across Temperature and Environment in New York = UPStATE NY
The overarching objective of this research project is to identify community stressors and resilience-enhancing assets that shape relationships between climate change-related exposures [heat, ozone, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5)] and children’s health. The project team is particularly interested in assets which may bolster children’s resilience to climate-related exposures in underserved communities across the state of New York.
By collaborating with the state government, the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units, and the only-in-the-nation statewide Children’s Environmental Health Centers Network, researchers will generate daily fine-scale exposure-health relationships for heat, ozone, and PM2.5 on all children between the ages of 0 and 17 years during the years of 2005 through 2019. The project team will then cross-examine stressors identified by the New York State Climate Justice Working Group and apply the Resilience Activation Framework, which organizes assets in five domains (human, economic, social, political, environmental capital). The investigation will result in the identification of key community stressors and assets shown to exacerbate or buffer impacts of climate-driven exposures on children’s health.