Environmental Sciences and Engineering Research
WaSH deficiencies identified in response to COVID-19 require urgent attention
October 19, 2020 A recent review that features work from the UNC Water Institute has shown that deficiencies in water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) strategies are limiting our ability to fight the pandemic.
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will make managing droughts more complicated
October 16, 2020 Near-term concerns about the impact the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will have on water availability for Egypt and Sudan are unlikely to materialize, but drought preparedness will require careful coordination, suggests research published by researchers from five major universities.
Understanding how cirrus clouds form can improve climate change modeling
October 8, 2020 New research has found that trees and plants play an important role in the formation of cirrus clouds. This finding that has implications for agriculture, urban development and climate change modeling.
Styblo, Koller develop novel humanized mouse model with implications for studying arsenic exposure in humans
September 29, 2020 A new humanized mouse model represents pioneering work in the field of toxicology, paving the way for scientists around the globe to more accurately predict arsenic toxicity in humans.
New study links particulate matter pollution to brain damage, depression
September 1, 2020 Recent research by a team that included Drs. William Vizuete and Marc Serre adds to mounting evidence that long-term exposure to particulate matter pollution contributes to memory loss and may accelerate aging of the brain, especially later in life.
NSF funds UNC scientists to explore potential COVID-19 aerosol transmission
August 3, 2020 In an effort to further our understanding of how COVID-19 is spread, the National Science Foundation has funded a team of researchers at the Gillings School, led by Dr. Barbara Turpin, to study the SARS-CoV-2 virus' potential for aerosol transmission.
Gillings faculty urge World Health Organization to address potential airborne spread of COVID-19
July 14, 2020 Drs. Barbara Turpin, Glenn Morrison and Jason Surratt from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering have joined more than two hundred scientists in signing an open letter to the World Health Organization expressing concern about the potential airborne spread of COVID-19.
Governments need rigorous and consistent standards to address environmental health for people who are displaced
March 6, 2020 Forcibly displaced people face a number of environmental health challenges that can vastly differ depending on the response by the countries that host them. New research from the Gillings School calls for a consistent and thorough set of standards that can address these challenges holistically.
New research identifies low-cost options for reducing health impacts of air pollution
February 20, 2020 “The limitation with [the] traditional approach is that there are many possible control actions and technologies affecting emissions from many different sources, and it is impractical to sort through all the choices,” says Dr. Jason West. “Using a simpler model, we turned that approach around to essentially ask which emission reductions are most cost-effective for improving public health.”
A booming cannabis industry could have critical impact on Denver’s air quality
December 19, 2019 New research from Dr. William Vizuete indicates that the emissions from cannabis cultivation factories for recreational and medicinal use could strongly impact the regional air quality in Denver, Colorado.
