Good News

Jo Lane has completed her training to become a Board Approved Supervisor and can now supervise provisional and general psychologists.

Keynote and invited presentations

Vardoulakis S., 2019. Climate Change and Healthy Cities – from Primary Care to Preventive Health. 16th International Conference on Urban Health, Xiamen, China, 4-8 November 2019. (invited keynote)

Robyn Lucas and Sotiris Vardoulakis spoke at the Ecohealth for Development meeting at ANU last week.

Other conference presentations

Vardoulakis S., Loh M., Crawford J., Conlan B., Davis A., Williamson T., Black D., Lowder M., Dixon K., Cowie H., 2019. Urban interventions to improve outdoor air quality. 16th International Conference on Urban Health, Xiamen, China, 4-8 November 2019.

Vardoulakis S., Nagendra S., Huang C., Liu Q., Zhu T., Zhao P., Peter A., Carmichael L., Dirks K., Salmond J., Borah P. 2019. GCRF Clean Environment and Planetary Health in Asia Network. 16th International Conference on Urban Health, Xiamen, China, 5 November 2019

RSPH workshops and seminars

MJA-Lancet Countdown 2019 Report Launch at ANU on 15.11.2019  

https://rsph.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/survive-or-thrive-need-ambitious-climate-change-and-human-health-policies-australia

Outreach and engagement

Martyn Kirk and Miranda Harris have been invited to present the PFAS Health Study to the PFAS Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade next Monday – 25 November. Martyn and Katherine Todd presented the study to the Sub-Committee in September 2018. Next Week Martyn and Miranda will provide an update on the study, and provide details to new members of the Sub-Committee.

Media releases/interest

ABC live radio interview on peat fire smoke at Port Macquarie (S. Vardoulakis, 20.11.2019)  

Other news

Consultancy bid submitted to prepare a Climate Change and Health Policy and Revised Action Plan for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (S. Vardoulakis, A. Lal, R. Lucas, et al.)

Papers accepted/published:

Johnston H.J., Mueller W., Steinle S., Vardoulakis S., Tantrakamapa K., Loh M., Cherrie J.W., 2019. How harmful is particulate matter emitted from biomass burning? A Thailand perspective. Current Pollution Reports. doi.org/10.1007/s40726-019-00125-4

Mueller W., Steinle S., Pärkkä J., Parmes E., Liedes H., Kuijpers E., Pronk A., Sarigiannis D., Karakitsios S., Chapizanis D., Maggos T., Stamatelopoulou A., Wilkinson P., Milner J., Vardoulakis S., Loh M., 2020. Urban greenspace and the indoor environment: Pathways to health via indoor particulate matter, noise, and road noise annoyance. Environmental Research 180, 108850.

Gardiner FW, Bishop L, Gale L, Harwood A, Teoh N, Lucas RM, Jones M, Laverty M. Poor access to kidney disease management services in susceptible patient populations in rural Australia is associated with increased aeromedical retrievals for acute renal care. Internal Medicine Journal (accepted 25 Nov 2019)

Progress on research projects

PFAS Health Study

Approximately 1,900 paper copies of the survey were sent out to participants who had not completed the online survey. The team is continuing to work with the Department of Human Services for the selection of comparison participants for the study. We are waiting on approval from one ethics committee and some data custodians before the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare can begin data linkage for the final component of the study.