Global Health

This page has a list of publications and news articles related to Global Health. Find more information about our research on Global Health issues.

Special Report 18
Health Effects Institute
2010

This comprehensive literature review to come out of HEI's Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) program builds on an initial assessment conducted in 2004 and describes the current scope of the Asian literature on the health effects of outdoor air pollution, enumerating and classifying more than 400 studies. In addition, the report includes a systematic and quantitative assessment of 82 time-series studies of daily mortality and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

Research Report 154
Haidong Kan
et al.
Zhengmin Qian
et al.
Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan
et al.
Chit-Ming Wong
et al.
2010

This report describes the first set of coordinated time-series studies ever undertaken in Asian cities: four time-series studies of the health effects of air pollution in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan. These studies were intended to help bridge the gaps between studies conducted in different locations around the globe.

Research Report 142
Klea Katsouyanni
Jonathan M Samet
H Ross Anderson
Richard Atkinson
Alain Le Tertre
Sylvia Medina
Evangelia Samoli
Giota Touloumi
Richard T Burnett
Daniel Krewski
Timothy Ramsay
Francesca Dominici
Roger D. Peng
Joel Schwartz
Antonella Zanobetti
2009

This report describes a unique collaboration among investigators from Europe, the United States, and Canada using existing data from three geographic areas and supported by HEI in collaboration with the European Commission. APHENA offered a large and diverse data set with which to address methodological as well as scientific issues about the relationships between PM10, ozone, and mortality and morbidity that were the subject of lively debates at the time the project was launched. 

Research Report 143
Roy M Harrison
Juana Maria Delgado-Saborit
Stephen J Baker
Noel Aquilina
Claire Meddings
Stuart Harrad
Ian Matthews
Sotiris Vardoulakis
H Ross Anderson
2009

This report describes a study to develop detailed personal exposure models that take various microenvironments into account. To develop the models, Dr. Harrison and colleagues made repeated measurements of exposure to selected air toxics for each of 100 healthy adult nonsmoking participants residing in urban, suburban, and rural areas of the United Kingdom expected to have different traffic exposures.

Research Report 139
Bert Brunekreef
Rob Beelen
Gerard Hoek
Leo Schouten
Sandra Bausch-Goldbohm
Paul Fischer
Ben Armstrong
Edward Hughes
Piet van den Brandt
2009

Research Report 139 describes a study in the Netherlands using data from the ongoing Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS) on diet and cancer. The study is one of the first to systematically assess longer term exposure and mortality in a well characterized European population; it followed a pilot study of 5000 adults randomly selected from the NLCS cohort conducted by the same team of investigators. For the current study, Dr.

Research Report 137
Annette Peters
Susanne Breitner
Josef Cyrys
Matthias Stölzel
Mike Pitz
Gabriele Wölke
Joachim Heinrich
Wolfgang Kreyling
Helmut Küchenhoff
H-Erich Wichmann
2009

Research Report 137, The Influence of Improved Air Quality on Mortality Risks in Erfurt, Germany, is the first study to come out of HEI's program on the health impact of regulatory and other actions to improve air quality, known as accountability. The report describes sweeping changes in the economy and energy use that occurred in the former East Germany after the 1990 reunification as a result of stricter environmental controls and modernization of industry, transportation, and household heating. Dr.

Research Report 138
Junfeng (Jim) Zhang
James E McCreanor
Paul Cullinan
Kian Fan Chung
Pamela Ohman-Strickland
In-Kyu Han
Lars Järup
Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen
2009

Research Report 138, Health Effects of Real-World Exposure to Diesel Exhaust in Persons with Asthma, is one part of HEI's larger program on the role of particles in exacerbating asthma and other allergic diseases. This report describes a study to evaluate how inhaling air with a high concentration of diesel exhaust from vehicular traffic while walking on a busy street in Central London might affect people who had either mild or moderate asthma. Dr.

Communication 13
Health Effects Institute
2008

The September issue of Environmental Health Perspectives published the first systematic presentation of the HEI-funded PAPA studies in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan, as well as a combined analysis and accompanying editorial. These articles have been reprinted and are currently available as HEI Communication 13. The detailed studies and accompanying HEI commentaries will be published by the Institute this spring.

Research Report 134
Jonathan Grigg
Neeta Kulkarni
Nevil Pierse
Lesley Rushton
Christopher O'Callaghan
Andrew Rutman
2008

Research Report 134 describes a study that evaluated whether there was an association between particles detectable in the airways of healthy children and a) estimates of local, traffic-derived PM10 at the children's home addresses or b) their lung function. Dr. Jonathan Grigg and colleagues recruited 116 healthy children aged 8 to 15 years who lived in Leicester, UK. In addition to modeling each child's exposure, the investigators measured lung function and evaluated induced sputum for particles in airway macrophages and markers of inflammation.

Research Report 124
Annette Peters
et al.
Douglas W. Dockery
et al.
2005

This report contains two studies, by Drs. Annette Peters and Douglas Dockery. Dr. Peters and her colleagues evaluated the association between nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) and exposure to particulate matter just prior to the event. She asked 691 patients in hospitals in Augsburg, Germany who survived an MI to provide hourly details about their activities 4 days before MI onset. The investigators used a case-crossover analysis to determine whether exposure to pollutants was associated with onset of MI. Dr. Dockery and colleagues assessed the correlation between short-term increases in ambient concentrations of particulate matter and the risk of possibly life-threatening arrhythmias in patients with implanted cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). The investigators studied 195 patients from Boston, MA who had either single or dual-chamber ICD's and used logistic regression models to determine whether exposure to air pollutants was associated with arrhythmias.