July 31 | 2017

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Statistical modeling of the spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, using noise measurements and land use characteristics.

Martina S Ragettli, Sophie Goudreau, Céline Plante, Michel Fournier, Marianne Hatzopoulou, Stéphane Perron and Audrey Smargiassi

Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2016 Nov;26(6):597-605. doi: 10.1038/jes.2015.82. Epub 2016 Jan 6

10.1038/jes.2015.82

ABSTRACT: The availability of noise maps to assess exposure to noise is often limited, especially in North American cities. We developed land use regression (LUR) models for LAeq24h, Lnight, and Lden to assess the long-term spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, considering various transportation noise sources (road, rail, and air). To explore the effects of sampling duration, we compared our LAeq24h levels that were computed over at least five complete contiguous days of measurements to shorter sampling periods (20 min and 24 h). LUR models were built with General Additive Models using continuous 2-min noise measurements from 204 sites. Model performance (adjusted R2) was 0.68, 0.59, and 0.69 for LAeq24h, Lnight, and Lden, respectively. Main predictors of measured noise levels were road-traffic and vegetation variables. Twenty-minute non-rush hour measurements corresponded well with LAeq24h levels computed over 5 days at road-traffic sites (bias: -0.7 dB(A)), but not at rail (-2.1 dB(A)) nor at air (-2.2 dB(A)) sites. Our study provides important insights into the spatial variation of environmental noise levels in a Canadian city. To assess long-term noise levels, sampling strategies should be stratified by noise sources and preferably should include 1 week of measurements at locations exposed to rail and aircraft noise.

 

July 24 | 2017

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Regional Climate Projections of Extreme Heat Events in Nine Pilot Canadian Communities for Public Health Planning

Casati, B., Yagouti, A., Chaumont, D. (2013), JAMC, vol. 52, 2669:2698

https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-12-0341.1

ABSTRACT: Public health planning needs the support of evidence-based information on current and future climate, which could be used by health professionals and decision makers to better understand and respond to the health impacts of extreme heat. Climate models provide information regarding the expected increase in temperatures and extreme heat events with climate change and can help predict the severity of future health impacts, which can be used in the public health sector for the development of adaptation strategies to reduce heat-related morbidity and mortality. This study analyzes the evolution of extreme temperature indices specifically defined to characterize heat events associated with health risks, in the context of a changing climate. The analysis is performed by using temperature projections from the Canadian Regional Climate Model.

 

July 17 | 2017

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Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality

Tim Althoff, Rok Sosič, Jennifer L. Hicks, Abby C. King, Scott L. Delp & Jure Leskovec., 2017.  Nature, Published online 10 July 2017.

https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature23018.htmldoi:10.1038/nature23018

Using data captured from smartphones, researchers have amassed a dataset consisting of 68 million days of physical activity for 717,527 people to study activity across the globe.

As described in the abstract: “Aspects of the built environment, such as the walkability of a city, are associated with a smaller gender gap in activity and lower activity inequality. In more walkable cities, activity is greater throughout the day and throughout the week, across age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) groups, with the greatest increases in activity found for females. Our findings have implications for global public health policy and urban planning and highlight the role of activity inequality and the built environment in improving physical activity and health.”

 

 

 

July 10 | 2017

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Exploring pathways linking greenspace to health: Theoretical and methodological guidance

Markevych, I., Schoierer, J., Hartig, T., Chudnovsky, A., Hystad, P., Dzhambov, A.M., de Vries, S., Triguero-Mas, M., Brauer, M., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J. and Lupp, G., 2017. Environmental Research, 158, pp.301-317.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.06.028

During an Expert Workshop held in September 2016, the evidence linking greenspace and health was reviewed from a transdisciplinary standpoint, with a particular focus on potential underlying biopsychosocial pathways and how these can be explored and organized to support policy-relevant population health research.

This Report provides guidance for further epidemiological research with the goal of creating new evidence upon which to develop policy recommendations.