Graphic courtesy of School of Public Health.
Graphic courtesy of School of Public Health.
People living and working in Detroit are exposed to elevated levels of multiple air pollutants, including particulate matter in the air, diesel exhaust, sulfur dioxide, and ozone pollution. Air pollutants have a devastating effect on asthma, cardiovascular risk, cancer, and adverse birth outcomes.
Community Action to Promote Healthy Environments at the University of Michigan School of Public Health is a research partnership that includes community-based and health organizations, representatives from governmental organizations along with academic partners working to develop and implement components of a public health action plan to improve air quality and health in Detroit.
“Air pollution exposures and their accompanying health effects have long been a concern among Detroit residents, who disproportionately experience many adverse health effects linked to air pollutants,” explained Amy Schulz, professor of health behavior and health education and co-principal investigator of CAPHE. Air pollution continues to be identified as one of the top public health priorities by Detroit community members and community-based organizations.
In 2017, CAPHE released a Public Health Action Plan, which presented a wide range of recommendations, from clean fuels in city transportation to planting more trees to instituting and promoting the use of air filters in schools, businesses, and homes.
Six years later, “work is moving forward on a number of CAPHE’s public health recommendations,” said co-principal investigator Stuart Batterman, professor of environmental health sciences and global public health.
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