July report for Environment, Climate and Health

3 July 2019

New grants/funding

The ECH group is delighted to welcome Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis who will be starting at NCEPH in early September. Sotiris works primarily on air pollution and human health, and effects of climate change on health more generally. 

Other conference presentations

M. K. Connelly, R. M. Rodney Harris, F. S. Andrade, J. P. Nascimento Andrade, J. Kuehnl, A. Beard, E. Block, I. J. Lean, L. L. Hernandez 2019 Influence of prepartum dietary cation-anion difference and the decline of calcium at the onset of lactation. American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Annual Meeting 2019, 23-26 June, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Outreach and engagement

Robyn Lucas attended the Al Gore Climate Reality Corps training in Brisbane as a mentor.

Media releases/interest

  1. Ann Holmes paper on sun exposure and pediatric inflammatory bowel disease generated several media articles, including in the Canberra Times.
  2. The paper led by Curtin University and including Robyn Lucas, based on the Ausimmune Study, showing that modest meat consumption with a Mediterranean diet was protective for the development of multiple sclerosis also generated considerable press, although not in Canberra (but was huge elsewhere apparently!)
  3. Robyn Lucas gave interviews for WIN television and others on the paper released on 24 June on the Montreal Protocol, ozone depletion and skin cancer.
  4. Robyn Lucas was named a “World Expert”, in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about Sunlight (!) over the past 10 years. Find the tweet here:

https://twitter.com/Daily_Experts/status/1142220160553684992

  1. Media on Sotiris’ new paper:

Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/26/action-on-air-pollution-works-but-far-more-is-needed-study-shows

New Scientist

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2207622-uk-has-halved-air-pollution-deaths-since-1970-but-must-still-do-more/

ITV News

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-06-25/policies-to-reduce-pollution-emissions-have-cut-deaths-over-40-years-study/

BMJ News

https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l4403

Papers accepted/published:

  1. Gardiner FW, Richardson A, Bishop L, Harwood A, Gardiner EC, Gale L, Teoh N, Lucas RM, Laverty M. Older person’s health in rural and remote Australia: challenges and gaps in service provision. Medical Journal of Australia (accepted 19 June 2019)
  2. GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators (including Lucas RM). Global, regional and national burden of neurological disorders, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Neurology, 18(5):459-480
  3. Carnell E., Vieno M., Vardoulakis S., Beck R., Heaviside C., Tomlinson S., Dragosits U., Heal M., Reis S., 2019. Modelling public health improvements as a result of air pollution control policies in the UK over four decades – 1970 to 2010. Environmental Research Letters 14, 074001. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1542
  4. Lane J, Mazlin J, Irons J, Rohan EMF, Sabeti F, Essex RW … McKone E. (2019) Caricaturing can improve facial expression recognition in low-resolution images and age-related macular degeneration.  Journal of Vision 19(6):18
  5. Haifer C, Lawrence I, Center JR, Clarke MW, Hart P, Eisman JA, Lucas RM, Ghaly S. Vitamin D metabolites are lower with active Crohn’s disease and spontaneously recover with development of remission. Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology (accepted 28 June 2019).

Progress on research projects

The PFAS Health Study: The team is finalising the format of the questionnaire with the Social Research Centre. The first of the ethics applications was submitted for the data linkage study. The study webpage is being redeveloped and social media accounts are being tested. A team meeting was held in Canberra on 27 June.