News | August 2, 2023
‘Silent Killer’: Experts Warn of Record US Deaths from Extreme Heat
The punishing heatwaves that have scorched much of the US could result in a record number of heat-related deaths this year, experts have warned, amid a spike in hospitalizations from collapsing workers. Among those needing hospital treatment are heat-exhausted hikers and even people who have suffered severe burns from touching blistering concrete and asphalt. Heat…
News | September 7, 2021
2021 Urban@UW Spark Grants awardees announced
Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the second round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The two projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Among Vehicle Residents: A Case Study of the Seattle Public Utilities’ Recreational Vehicle Wastewater…
News | August 14, 2023
A Crisis of Isolation Is Making Heat Waves More Deadly
When Donna Crawford didn’t hear back from her brother Lyle, she began to fear the worst. It was Monday, June 28, 2021, at the tail end of a blistering heat dome that had settled over the Pacific Northwest. Two days prior, daytime temperatures had soared to 108 degrees Fahrenheit in Gresham, Oregon, where Lyle lived…
News | August 17, 2021
A triple whammy has left many U.S. city neighborhoods highly vulnerable to soaring temperatures
In New York City, several Hunts Point residents have lists of neighbors they’re checking on to help keep the most vulnerable alive during heat waves. The city has also subsidized 74,000 air conditioners for low-income, elderly residents and is spending tens of millions to plant trees, as part of a “cool neighborhoods” program that also…
Scholar
Abraham Flaxman
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Amy Hagopian
Visit scholar websiteNews | November 21, 2019
Baking cities advance ‘slowly’ in race against rising heat threat
With urban populations surging around the world, cities will struggle to keep residents safe from fast-growing heat risks turbo-charged by climate change, scientists and public health experts warned this week. Heat is already the leading cause of deaths from extreme weather in countries including the United States. The problem is particularly severe in cities, where…
News | July 21, 2022
Climate change is pushing hospitals to tipping point
When an unprecedented heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest last July, emergency rooms sought any way possible to lower the core body temperatures of patients coming in droves with heat-related ailments. Many emergency departments in the region began putting people in body bags filled with ice to help safely adjust their temperatures. But despite their…
News | December 13, 2019
Creating mental health friendly cities for youth
What would it take to make Seattle a mental health friendly city for young people? What innovations and actions might promote adolescent mental health in Seattle, as a model for other cities? The Population Health Initiative recently partnered with the University of Washington’s Global Mental Health program and Urban@UW to host an in-depth conversation with a multidisciplinary group of…
News | April 7, 2020
Data suggests coronavirus is disproportionately affecting Black communities in the US
Preliminary demographic data – where available — and early anecdotal evidence suggest that poor African-Americans are contracting and dying from the coronavirus in disproportionate rates. In the state of Michigan, while blacks represent only 12% of the total population, they account for at least 40% of its coronavirus-related deaths, said the Michigan Department of Health and…
Scholar
Diana Pearce
Visit scholar websiteNews | April 8, 2024
Earthquake showed Taiwan was well prepared for a big one — more so than parts of U.S.
Originally reported by Evan Bush for NBC News. The powerful earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday shook an island that was well prepared for a seismic catastrophe — likely more so than some regions of the U.S., several experts said. Nine people have been reported dead, though Taiwanese officials said the death toll could rise in…
Course | ENVH 220 / GH 220
Global Environmental Change and Public Health
Humans are the primary drivers of global environmental changes that are changing the planet on the scale of geological forces. Students will be introduced to these changes and their consequences for human health and well-being, with a focus on climate change and its consequences.Course | HSERV 490 / 590
Homeless in Seattle: Destitute Poverty in the Emerald City
This undergraduate and graduate-level course addresses the dimensions, causes, and health consequences of homelessness, particularly in Seattle. The course analyzes the political dimensions of public policy on homelessness, champions the rights of people experiencing homelessness, and describes local political activism efforts to end homelessness.News | December 7, 2022
Homelessness Research Initiative convenes homelessness scholars from across the UW
Last Tuesday, faculty, staff, and students from across the University of Washington met in the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health for a convening of the Homelessness Research Initiative. Led by faculty co-chairs Rachel Fyall, associate professor in the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, and Gregg Colburn, assistant professor in the College of…
News | July 5, 2022
Hundreds of homeless die in extreme heat
Hundreds of blue, green and grey tents are pitched under the sun’s searing rays in downtown Phoenix, a jumble of flimsy canvas and plastic along dusty sidewalks. Here, in the hottest big city in America, thousands of homeless people swelter as the summer’s triple digit temperatures arrive. The stifling tent city has ballooned amid pandemic-era…
News | September 9, 2021
In the early 1990s, heat waves battered Philadelphia’s most vulnerable communities. The lessons learned are helping today
The water trickled down quickly, enough to coat the sun-bleached concrete basin in a city park with a layer of wetness. A toddler danced, smiling as water from the park’s sprinklers rained down on her, keeping her cool. It was a blistering midsummer day in July, the kind that as recently as 30 years ago…
Scholar
Jonathan Mayer
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Kristie L. Ebi
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Looking inward for pollution In his latest research, Dr. Dan Jaffe looks to the kitchen as a source for indoor pollution in the home.
Excerpted from the University of Washington- Bothell website. For more than 30 years, Dr. Dan Jaffe has spent his career researching outdoor air pollution and its many sources — from wildfires to fossil fuels. In recent years, however, his curiosity has shifted inward as he looks to answer the question: “How clean is our indoor…
News | May 21, 2019
More back-to-back heat waves will come with climate change
Here’s another health danger climate change will deliver in the coming years: New research warns that back-to-back heat waves that go on for days will become more common as the planet warms. The elderly and the poor will be the least prepared to weather this threat, the investigators noted. But hospital ERs and emergency service…
News | August 11, 2021
New UW collaboratory to support equitable and just climate action
An interdisciplinary group of University of Washington researchers has teamed with Front and Centered to create an innovative Collaboratory to promote just and equitable climate action. The Collaboratory aims to respond to climate change impacts with attention to equitable mitigation and adaptation solutions. It will feature three linked platforms to achieve this goal through a…
Scholar
Peter Rabinowitz
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 1, 2023
Planting more trees in cities could slash summer heat deaths, study finds
Planting more trees in cities could cut the number of people dying from high temperatures in summer, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, a strategy that could help mitigate the effects of climate change as it continues to drive temperatures upwards. The research identifies a way for city planners…
News | May 5, 2020
Population Health Initiative announces award of 21 COVID-19 rapid response grants
The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $350,000 in COVID-19 rapid response grants to 21 different faculty-led teams. These teams are composed of individuals representing 10 different schools and colleges. Funding was partially matched by additional school, college and departmental funds, bringing the total value of these awards to roughly $820,000. “A…
News | February 19, 2021
Preliminary Report: Homeshare Study Policy Recommendations
Housing instability is a national crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Washington state has some of the highest levels of homelessness in the nation. In both rural and urban parts of the state, too few people can afford to rent or own a home on the wages they earn. The 2019-2021 Washington state biennial…
News | May 29, 2016
Quick Recap: Here’s What Happened in May!
May saw a lot of wonderful events, visitors, and research coming out of the University of Washington community. Here’s a quick recap: The CBE PhD Program looked at the future of cities Patricia Romero Lankao visited to talk about the human dimension of climate change Seattle’s “diverse neighborhoods” are actually surprisingly segregated New lighting research…
News | August 10, 2023
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Are Pervasive in the US, Across Most Causes of Death and in Most Counties, New Study Shows
It’s been more than two years since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared racism a public health threat, and a new study gives a stark look at just how pervasive racial and ethnic disparities are in the United States. Researchers tracked US mortality data across nearly two decades, breaking rates down by…
News | December 20, 2016
Reflections on Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change
On November 7th and 8th Urban@UW, in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group (CIG), hosted a symposium to begin transdisciplinary conversation on the multifaceted dynamics and consequences of Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change (UEJ). Below are some reflections from this event, and a sample of the resources we’ll…
Scholar
Sara Curran
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 11, 2023
Spain’s April Heat Nearly Impossible Without Climate Change
Record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change, a new flash study found, and would have been almost impossible in the past. The study also said the extreme heat in Europe is rising faster than computer models had projected. The same thing happened in…
Course | GH 482 / HSERV 482
The Health of Populations
Explores what makes a population healthy or unhealthy. Examines why the United States is less healthy than all other rich countries, despite being one of the healthiest fifty years ago.News | July 9, 2020
Trouble paying medical bills can lead to longer episodes of homelessness, new study shows
Even before the pandemic left COVID-19 patients with staggering hospital bills, many people, especially those who are uninsured, were often overwhelmed with medical bills. And medical debt and housing instability often go hand in hand. In a new University of Washington study of people experiencing homelessness in King County, unpaid medical bills were their primary…
Course | ENVH 418 / GH 418
Understanding and Managing the Health Risks of Climate Change
The health risks of climate change are multiple and range across the public health space. Addresses current and projected health risks of climate change and the policies and measures to manage these risks as the climate continues to change.News | August 25, 2020
US cities could face nearly 30 times more exposure to extreme heat by 2100 compared to the early 2000s, study finds
As triple-digit heat tests the limits of California’s electrical grid to keep millions of people cool, it is clear the effects of human-caused global warming are already here. But the extreme heat baking the Western US is a mere preview of what could be coming: A new study finds that in the future, the heat risk facing the country’s biggest…
News | July 11, 2016
UW researchers discuss data, trends of gun violence in U.S.
Before the horrific mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, before the U.S. Senate filibuster and House sit-in, and before the American Medical Association’s call for more federal funding into gun-violence research, two UW Medicine doctors were quietly conducting a rare study – without federal dollars – into what happens to gunshot victims after they are treated…
News | May 26, 2016
UW-led study pinpoints how air pollution harms your heart
Dr. Joel Kaufman of the University of Washington led a 10-year study of 6,000 people in six cities that found air pollution accelerates deposits of calcium in heart arteries, a known cause of heart attack and stroke. Scientists have known for years that long-term exposure to air pollution raises the risk of heart disease, but…
Scholar
Wendy Johnson
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 19, 2017
Why Architects should care about public health
Andrew Dannenberg, an Affiliate Professor at the School of Public Health and the College of Built Environments, writes about the importance of architects recognizing human health: while architects have long recognized the importance of human health —including physical, mental, and social well-being — as part of their mission, implementation sometimes reflects a spirit of compliance…
News | February 21, 2023
Will global warming make temperature less deadly?
The scientific paper published in the June 2021 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change was alarming. Between 1991 and 2018, the peer-reviewed study reported, more than one-third of deaths from heat exposure were linked to global warming. Hundreds of news outlets covered the findings. The message was clear: climate change is here, and it’s…
News | August 27, 2020
Will King County public transit survive COVID-19?
Despite coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of people living in King County continue to rely on buses, light rail, ferries and other modes of public transportation to get around. “There’s still a whole lot of people who are counting on transit as a lifeline,” said Alex Hudson, executive director of the Transportation Choices Coalition. “People know transit…