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IntroductionThis study assesses the person-specific impact of extreme heat on low-income households using wearable sensors. The focus is on the intensive and longitudinal assessment of physical activity and sleep with the rising person-specific ambient temperature. MethodsThis study recruited 30 participants in a low-income and predominantly Black community in Houston, Texas in August and September of 2022. Each participant wore on his/her wrist an accelerometer that recorded person-specific ambient temperature, sedentary behavior, physical activity intensity (low and moderate to vigorous), and sleep efficiency 24 h over 14 days. Mixed effects models were used to analyze associations among physical activity, sleep, and person-specific ambient temperature. ResultsThe main findings include increased sedentary time, sleep impairment with the rise of person-level ambient temperature, and the mitigating role of AC. ConclusionsExtreme heat negatively affects physical activity and sleep. The negative consequences are especially critical for those with limited use of AC in lower-income neighborhoods of color. Staying home with a high indoor temperature during hot days can lead to various adverse health outcomes including accelerated cognitive decline, higher cancer risk, and social isolation.
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Population health implications of exposure to pervasive military aircraft noise pollution
Abstract BackgroundWhile the adverse health effects of civil aircraft noise are relatively well studied, impacts associated with more intense and intermittent noise from military aviation have been rarely assessed. In recent years, increased training at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, USA has raised concerns regarding the public health and well-being implications of noise from military aviation. ObjectiveThis study assessed the public health risks of military aircraft noise by developing a systematic workflow that uses acoustic and aircraft operations data to map noise exposure and predict health outcomes at the population scale. MethodsAcoustic data encompassing seven years of monitoring efforts were integrated with flight operations data for 2020–2021 and a Department of Defense noise simulation model to characterize the noise regime. The model produced contours for day-night, nighttime, and 24-h average levels, which were validated by field monitoring and mapped to yield the estimated noise burden. Established thresholds and exposure-response relationships were used to predict the population subject to potential noise-related health effects, including annoyance, sleep disturbance, hearing impairment, and delays in childhood learning. ResultsOver 74,000 people within the area of aircraft noise exposure were at risk of adverse health effects. Of those exposed, substantial numbers were estimated to be highly annoyed and highly sleep disturbed, and several schools were exposed to levels that place them at risk of delay in childhood learning. Noise in some areas exceeded thresholds established by federal regulations for public health, residential land use and noise mitigation action, as well as the ranges of established exposure-response relationships. Impact statementThis study quantified the extensive spatial scale and population health burden of noise from military aviation. We employed a novel GIS-based workflow for relating mapped distributions of aircraft noise exposure to a suite of public health outcomes by integrating acoustic monitoring and simulation data with a dasymetric population density map. This approach enables the evaluation of population health impacts due to past, current, and future proposed military operations. Moreover, it can be modified for application to other environmental noise sources and offers an improved open-source tool to assess the population health implications of environmental noise exposure, inform at-risk communities, and guide efforts in noise mitigation and policy governing noise legislation, urban planning, and land use.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1922004
- PAR ID:
- 10539440
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Nature Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
- ISSN:
- 1559-0631
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-024-00670-1
