Jennifer D. Stowell

Background Over 120 million people in the USA live in areas with unsafe ozone (O3) levels. Studies among adults have linked exposure to worse lung function and higher risk of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, few studies have examined the effects of O3 in children, and existing studies are limited in terms of their geographic scope or outcomes considered. Methods We leveraged a dataset of encounters at 42 US children’s hospitals from 2004–2015. We used a one-stage case-crossover design to quantify the association between daily maximum 8-hour O3 in the county in which the hospital is located and risk of emergency department (ED) visits for any cause and for respiratory disorders, asthma, respiratory infections, allergies and ear disorders. Results Approximately 28 million visits were available during this period …

In 2023 human populations experienced multiple record‐breaking climate events, with widespread impacts on human health and well‐being. These events include extreme heat domes, drought, severe storms, flooding, and wildfires. Due to inherent lags in the climate system, we can expect such extremes to continue for multiple decades after reaching net zero carbon emissions. Unfortunately, despite these significant current and future impacts, funding for research in climate and health has lagged behind that for other geoscience and biomedical research. While some initial efforts from funding agencies are evident, there is still a significant need to increase the resources available for multidisciplinary research in the face of this issue. As a group of experts at this important intersection, we call for a more concerted effort to encourage interdisciplinary and policy‐relevant investigations into the detrimental health …

The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration that independently monitors the evolving impacts of climate change on health, and the emerging health opportunities of climate action. In its eighth iteration, this 2023 report draws on the expertise of 114 scientists and health practitioners from 52 research institutions and UN agencies worldwide to provide its most comprehensive assessment yet.

Global climate change has sparked efforts to adapt to increasing temperatures, especially in urban areas that experience increased day and nighttime temperatures due to the urban heat island effect. The addition of greenspace has been suggested as a possible means for urban centers to respond to increasing urban temperatures. Thus, it is important for urban planning and policymakers to have access to data on greenspace specific at a fine spatial resolution. This dataset consists of information on peak and annual average 1 × 1 km Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for over 1,000 global urban centers, which is an objective satellite-based measure of vegetation. Population-weighted values for both peak and annual average NDVI and include an indicator of greenness, with seven levels ranging from extremely low to extremely high are provided. Additional information regarding the climate zone …

Factor H autoantibodies contribute to complement dysregulation in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) Factor H autoantibodies contribute to complement dysregulation in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) Am J Hematol. 2023 May;98(5):E98-E101. doi: 10.1002/ajh.26868. Epub 2023 Feb 13. Authors Patricia E Zerra 1 2 , Jennifer Stowell 3 , Hans Verkerke 1 , James McCoy 1 , Jayre Jones 2 , Sara Graciaa 2 , Austin Lu 4 5 , Laila Hussaini 4 5 , Evan J Anderson 4 5 6 , Christina A Rostad 4 5 6 , Sean R Stowell 7 , Satheesh Chonat 2 Affiliations 1 Center for Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapies, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 2 Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Department of Pediatrics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 3 School of Public Health, Boston …

Climate change and human activities have drastically altered the natural wildfire balance in the Western US and increased population health risks due to exposure to pollutants from fire smoke. Using dynamically downscaled climate model projections, we estimated additional asthma emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to exposure to smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the Western US in the 2050s. Isolating the amount of PM2.5 from wildfire smoke is both difficult to estimate and, thus, utilized by relatively few studies. In this study, we use a sophisticated modeling approach to estimate future increase in wildfire smoke exposure over the reference period (2003–2010) and subsequent health care burden due to asthma exacerbation. Average increases in smoke PM2.5 during future fire season ranged from 0.05 to 9.5 µg m−3 with the highest increases seen in Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Using the …

Acute ozone (O3) exposure is linked to increased risk of children's asthma incidence and exacerbations. However, few large-scale studies link these and other health impacts to O3. This gap is particularly important given the large numbers (120+ million) in the US that live in areas with O3 levels above limits set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Daily Variation in Fine Particulate Matter (PM2. 5) Levels and Emergency Department Visits Among Children, 2004-2015: A Case-Crossover Study among 43 US Children’s Hospitals

The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown is published as the world confronts profound and concurrent systemic shocks. Countries and health systems continue to contend with the health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a persistent fossil fuel overdependence has pushed the world into global energy and cost-of-living crises. As these crises unfold, climate change escalates unabated. Its worsening impacts are increasingly affecting the foundations of human health and wellbeing, exacerbating the vulnerability of the world's populations to concurrent health threats.

High ambient temperatures have become more likely due to climate change and are linked to higher rates of heat-related illness, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, mental health disorders, and other diseases. To date, far fewer studies have examined the effects of high temperatures on children versus adults, and studies including children have seldom been conducted on a national scale. Compared to adults, children have behavioral and physiological differences that may give them differential heat vulnerability. We acquired medical claims data from a large database of commercially insured US children aged 0–17 from May to September (warm-season) 2016–2019. Daily maximum ambient temperature and daily mean relative humidity estimates were aggregated to the county level using the Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes dataset, and extreme heat was defined as the 95th …

Increases in wildfire activity across the Western US pose a significant public health threat. While there is evidence that wildfire smoke is detrimental for respiratory health, the impacts on cardiovascular health remain unclear. This study evaluates the association between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke and unscheduled cardiorespiratory hospital visits in California during the 2004–2009 wildfire seasons. We estimate daily mean wildfire‐specific PM2.5 with Goddard Earth Observing System‐Chem, a global three‐dimensional model of atmospheric chemistry, with wildfire emissions estimates from the Global Fire Emissions Database. We defined a “smoke event day” as cumulative 0‐1‐day lag wildfire‐specific PM2.5 ≥ 98th percentile of cumulative 0–1 lag day wildfire PM2.5. Associations between exposure and outcomes are estimated using negative binomial regression. Results indicate that …

From the heated debates over the airborne transmission of the novel coronavirus to the abrupt Earth system changes caused by the sudden lockdowns, the dire circumstances resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic have brought the field of GeoHealth to the forefront of visibility in science and policy. The pandemic has inadvertently provided an opportunity to study how human response has impacted the Earth system, how the Earth system may impact the pandemic, and the capacity of GeoHealth to inform real‐time policy. The lessons learned throughout our responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic are shaping the future of GeoHealth.

Early studies of weather, seasonality, and environmental influences on COVID-19 have yielded inconsistent and confusing results. To provide policy-makers and the public with meaningful and actionable environmentally-informed COVID-19 risk estimates, the research community must meet robust methodological and communication standards.

Background: Studies of PM 2.5 health effects are influenced by the spatiotemporal coverage and accuracy of exposure estimates. The use of satellite remote sensing data such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) in PM 2.5 exposure modeling has increased recently in the US and elsewhere in the world. However, few studies have addressed this issue in southern California due to challenges with reflective surfaces and complex terrain.Methods: We examined the factors affecting the associations with satellite AOD using a two-stage spatial statistical model. The first stage estimated the temporal PM 2.5/AOD relationships using a linear mixed effects model at 1 km resolution. The second stage accounted for spatial variation using geographically weighted regression. Goodness of fit for the final model was evaluated by comparing the daily PM 2.5 concentrations generated by cross-validation (CV) with observations. These …

Regulatory monitoring networks are often too sparse to support community-scale PM2.5 exposure assessment while emerging low-cost sensors have the potential to fill in the gaps. To date, limited studies, if any, have been conducted to utilize low-cost sensor measurements to improve PM2.5 prediction with high spatiotemporal resolutions based on statistical models. Imperial County in California is an exemplary region with sparse Air Quality System (AQS) monitors and a community-operated low-cost network entitled Identifying Violations Affecting Neighborhoods (IVAN). This study aims to evaluate the contribution of IVAN measurements to the quality of PM2.5 prediction. We adopted the Random Forest algorithm to estimate daily PM2.5 concentrations at a 1-km spatial resolution using three different PM2.5 datasets (AQS-only, IVAN-only, and AQS/IVAN combined). The results show that the integration of low-cost …

An overwhelming majority of climate scientists have declared the validity of climate change and its potential threat to the environment and to living organisms on the planet. Though it is still taken lightly by some, temperatures across the globe are rising—especially near the poles where sheets of ice help to balance the conditions we experience in the troposphere. In fact, temperature anomalies have been tracked for many years by different entities, including both governmental and scientific organizations. Overwhelmingly, the temperature anomalies they have tracked deviate little from one another and follow nearly the exact same trend of warming in our atmosphere. Many skeptics consider the major cause of changes in climate to be natural increases of energy from the sun. While it is true that the sun has a natural, oscillating pattern of high and low energy, it has been operating on the same 11-year cycle for …