Patrick L Kinney

• Columbia University

Growing concerns about heat in urban areas paired with the sparsity of weather stations have resulted in individuals drawing on data from citizen science sensor networks to fill in data gaps. In the past decade, a proliferation of crowd-sourced sensors has provided low-cost local air quality and temperature, with one brand having over 14,000 sensor...

The threats to human health from wildfires and wildfire smoke (WFS) in the United States (US) are increasing due to continued climate change. A growing body of literature has documented important adverse health effects of WFS exposure, but there is insufficient evidence regarding how risk related to WFS exposure varies across individual or communit...

Ambient air quality across the southeastern US has improved substantially in recent decades. However, emissions from prescribed burn remain high, which may pose a substantial health threat. We employed a multistage modeling framework to estimate year-round, long-term effects of prescribed burn on air quality and premature deaths. The framework inte...

Unequal exposure to air pollution by race and socioeconomic status is well-documented in the U.S. However, there has been relatively little research on inequities in the collection of PM2.5 data, creating a critical gap in understanding which neighborhood exposures are represented in these datasets. In this study we use multilevel models with rando...

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and surface ozone air pollution have severe health consequences. Since China implemented the nationwide Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) in 2013, annual average PM2.5 concentrations have decreased while O3 concentration have increased in Beijing. It is unclear, however, to the extent that sho...

Transportation is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and has become a focus for climate policies. Traffic‐related air pollution disproportionately affects environmental justice (EJ) communities—neighborhoods that have disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards, but health impact assessments rarely center EJ issues or prioriti...

Smoke from wildfires poses a substantial threat to health in communities near and far. To mitigate the extent and potential damage of wildfires, prescribed burning techniques are commonly employed as land management tools; however, they introduce their own smoke-related risks. This study investigates the impact of prescribed fires on daily average...

Community air pollution science is widely viewed as a powerful public health and urban planning tool that can empower communities to push for policy change to benefit public health outcomes. A review of 131 studies highlights a bias toward the evaluation of low-cost sensor performance. We draw attention to the 10 studies (10%) that address a resear...

Particulate matter (PM) exposure is associated with adverse health outcomes, including respiratory illness. A large fraction of exposure to airborne contaminants occurs in the home. This study, conducted over 5 months in a community with high asthma rates (Chelsea, MA, USA), investigated the use of portable air cleaners (PACs) to reduce indoor PM....

China is one of the largest producers and consumers of coal in the world. The National Action Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control in China (2013–2017) particularly aimed to reduce emissions from coal combustion. Here, we show whether the acute health effects of PM2.5 changed from 2013 to 2018 and factors that might account for any observed...

Importance The association between short-term exposure to air pollution and mortality has been widely documented worldwide; however, few studies have applied causal modeling approaches to account for unmeasured confounders that vary across time and space. Objective To estimate the association between short-term changes in fine particulate matter (...

Access to urban natural space, including blue and greenspace, is associated with improved health. In 2021, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group set 2030 Urban Nature Declaration (UND) targets: “Quality Total Cover” (30% green area within each city) and “Equitable Spatial Distribution” (70% of the population living close to natural space). We eva...

Short-term exposure to ground-level ozone in cities is associated with increased mortality and is expected to worsen with climate and emission changes. However, no study has yet comprehensively assessed future ozone-related acute mortality across diverse geographic areas, various climate scenarios, and using CMIP6 multi-model ensembles, limiting ou...

We evaluated the sensitivity of estimated PM 2.5 and NO 2 health impacts to varying key input parameters and assumptions including: 1) the spatial scale at which impacts are estimated, 2) using either a single concentration-response function (CRF) or using racial/ethnic group specific CRFs from the same epidemiologic study, 3) assigning exposure to...

While human mobility plays a crucial role in determining ambient air pollution exposures and health risks, research to date has assessed risks on the basis of almost solely residential location. Here, we leveraged a database of ∼128−144 million workers in the United States and published ambient PM 2.5 data between 2011 and 2018 to explore how incor...

Rationale: The impact of a household air pollution (HAP) stove intervention on child lung function is poorly described. Objectives: To assess the effect of a prenatal to age one HAP stove intervention on, and exposure-response associations with, age four lung function. Methods: The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) rando...

We evaluated the sensitivity of estimated PM 2.5 and NO 2 health impacts to varying key input parameters and assumptions including: 1) the spatial scale at which impacts are estimated, 2) using either a single concentration-response function (CRF) or using racial/ethnic group specific CRFs from the same epidemiologic study, 3) assigning exposure to...

Many epidemiologic studies concerned with acute exposure to ambient PM2.5 have reported positive associations for respiratory disease hospitalization. However, few studies have investigated this relationship in Kuwait and extrapolating results from other regions may involve considerable uncertainty due to variations in concentration levels, particl...

Social solidarity is essential to large-scale collective action, but the need for solidarity has received little attention from scholars of Earth Systems, sustainability and public health. Now, the need for solidarity requires recognition. We have entered a new planetary epoch - the Anthropocene - in which human-induced global changes are occurring...

Background: Prenatal household air pollution impairs birth weight and increases pneumonia risk however time-varying associations have not been elucidated and may have implications for the timing of public health interventions. Methods: The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) enrolled 1,414 pregnant women from Kintampo, Ghana...

Global climate change has sparked efforts to adapt to increasing temperatures, especially in urban areas that experience increased day and nighttime temperatures due to the urban heat island effect. The addition of greenspace has been suggested as a possible means for urban centers to respond to increasing urban temperatures. Thus, it is important...

Background Though anecdotal evidence suggests that smoke from HAP has a repellent effect on mosquitoes, very little work has been done to assess the effect of biomass smoke on malaria infection. The study, therefore, sought to investigate the hypothesis that interventions to reduce household biomass smoke may have an unintended consequence of incre...

Background: Undernutrition is a global public health crisis, causing nearly half of deaths for children under age 5 years. Little is known regarding the impact of air pollution in-utero and early childhood on health outcomes related to undernutrition. The aim of our study is to evaluate the association of prenatal and early-life exposure to PM2.5 a...

The growing frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme heat events necessitates interventions to reduce heat exposures. Local opportunities for heat adaptation may be optimally identified through collection of both quantitative exposure metrics and qualitative data on perceptions of heat. In this study, we used mixed methods to characterize heat...

Background Personal monitoring can estimate individuals’ exposures to environmental pollutants; however, accuracy depends on consistent monitor wearing, which is under evaluated. Objective To study the association between device wearing and personal air pollution exposure. Methods Using personal device accelerometry data collected in the context...

Introduction Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases have been rising rapidly due largely to human activities, which have altered our climate system. There have been more significant impacts of climate change on the environment, biosphere and biodiversity over recent decades.1–3 Climate change has led to inc...

Background The health impacts of climate warming are usually quantified based on daily average temperatures. However, extra health risks might result from hot nights. We project the future mortality burden due to hot nights. Methods We selected the hot night excess (HNE) to represent the intensity of night-time heat, which was calculated as the ex...

Background: This paper represents, to our knowledge, the first national-level (United States) estimate of the economic impacts of vibriosis cases as exacerbated by climate change. Vibriosis is an illness contracted through food- and waterborne exposures to various Vibrio species (e.g., nonV. cholerae O1 and O139 serotypes) found in estuarine and m...

Heat-induced labor loss is a major economic cost related to climate change. Here, we use hourly heat stress data modeled with a regional climate model to investigate the heat-induced labor loss in 231 Chinese cities. Results indicate that future urban heat stress is projected to cause an increase in labor losses exceeding 0.20% of the total account...

Across the United States, cities are creating sustainability and climate action plans (CAPs) that call to increase local vegetation. These greening initiatives have the potential to not only benefit the environment but also human health. In epidemiologic literature, greenness has a protective effect on mortality through various direct and indirect...

Objectives: Nearly 40% of African children under five are stunted. We leveraged the Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) cohort to examine whether poorer growth was associated with worse childhood lung function. Study design: GRAPHS measured infant weight and length at birth and three, six, nine and twelve months and four yea...

There is now unequivocal evidence that the climate is rapidly changing due to the accumulation of anthropogenic warming pollutants (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane) in the Earth’s atmosphere. Climate change may affect indoor air quality and associated health impacts via increases in indoor temperatures, higher or lower emissions of pollutants from in...

This research proposes an Activity Pattern embedded Air Pollution Exposure Model (AP2EM), based on survey data of when, where, and how people spend their time and indoor/outdoor ratios for microenvironments. AP2EM integrates random forest and agent-based approaches to simulate the stochastic exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) along...

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with asthma development as well as asthma exacerbation in children. PM2.5 can be directly emitted or can form in the atmosphere from pollutant precursors. PM2.5 emitted and formed in the atmosphere is influenced by meteorology; future changes in climate may alter the concentration and distri...

While much is known about the effects of PM2.5 pollution on severe health outcomes, less is known about the heterogeneous impacts of air pollution on less severe health effects experienced by large numbers of people, such as those resulting in pharmacy visits. Based on anonymized daily pharmacy visits extracted from about 136,000 mobile phone stati...

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While ambitious carbon reduction policies are needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, the costs of these policies can be balanced by wide ranging health benefits for local communities. Cities, responsible for ~70% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and home to a growing majority of the world's population, offer enormous oppor...

Abstract: Air pollution levels are uneven within cities, contributing to persistent health disparities between neighborhoods and population sub-groups. Highly spatially resolved information on pollution levels and disease rates is necessary to characterize inequities in air pollution exposure and related health risks. We leverage recent advances in...

Background: The exposure-response association between prenatal and postnatal household air pollution (HAP) and infant growth trajectories is unknown. Objectives: To evaluate associations between prenatal and postnatal HAP exposure and stove interventions on growth trajectories over the first year of life. Methods: The Ghana Randomized Air Poll...

Background Low birth weight and prematurity are important risk factors for death and disability, and may be affected by prenatal exposure to household air pollution (HAP). Methods We investigate associations between maternal exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) during pregnancy and birth outcomes (birth weight, birth length, head circumference, gestat...

Psychometric paradigms have been developed and extensively applied in risk perception analyses, but relatively few studies have examined risk perception of air pollution in developing countries where the public is exposed to extremely high pollution levels. We conducted a stratified sampling questionnaire survey among 1988 college students from thr...

Background Air pollution health studies have been increasingly using prediction models for exposure assessment even in areas without monitoring stations. To date, most studies have assumed that a single exposure model is correct, but estimated effects may be sensitive to the choice of exposure model. Methods We obtained county-level daily cardiova...

Data from satellite instruments provide estimates of gas and particle levels relevant to human health, even pollutants invisible to the human eye. However, the successful interpretation of satellite data requires an understanding of how satellites relate to other data sources, as well as factors affecting their application to health challenges. Dra...

The temporary decrease of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in many parts of the world due to the COVID-19 lockdown spurred discussions on urban air pollution and health. However there has been little focus on sub-Saharan Africa, as few African cities have air quality monitors and if they do, these data are often not publicly available...

Background Clean cooking interventions to reduce air pollution exposure from burning biomass for daily cooking and heating needs have the potential to reduce a large burden of disease globally. Objective The objective of this study is to evaluate the air pollution exposure impacts of a fan-assisted efficient biomass-burning cookstove and a liquefi...

Background Nearly 40% of the world’s population is exposed daily to household air pollution. The relative impact of prenatal and postnatal household air pollution exposure on early childhood pneumonia, a leading cause of mortality, is unknown. Research Question Are prenatal and/or postnatal household air pollution associated with pneumonia risk in...

Background Extreme heat exposure can lead to premature death. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme heat events, resulting in many additional heat-related deaths globally, as well as changing the nature of extreme cold events. At the same time, vulnerability to extreme heat has decreased over time,...

Background: Low-cost sensors have the potential to democratize air pollution information and supplement regulatory networks. However, differentials in access to these sensors could exacerbate existing inequalities in the ability of different communities to respond to the threat of air pollution. Objective Our goal was to analyze patterns of deploym...

Abstract: Air pollution levels are uneven within cities, contributing to persistent health disparities between neighborhoods and population sub-groups. Highly spatially resolved information on pollution levels and disease rates is necessary to characterize inequities in air pollution exposure and related health risks. We leverage recent advances in...

Background Adoption of electric vehicles has the potential to reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, hence China has implemented policies incentivising use of electric vehicles. However, much is unknown about the potential air quality and public health benefits of electric vehicles, including optimal vehicle type prioritisation and the...

Wildfire activity in the western United States (US) has been increasing, a trend that has been correlated with changing patterns of temperature and precipitation associated with climate change. Health effects associated with exposure to wildfire smoke and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) include short- and long-term premature mortality, hospital adm...

I review an important study that Professor Evans published early in his career examining the role of cross‐sectional mortality studies in air pollution risk assessment. At a time when both risk assessment and particle effects on mortality were controversial, John's thoughtful analysis of the issues and data relevant to assessing long‐term mortality...

The transportation sector is now the primary contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI), a partnership of 12 states and the District of Columbia currently under development, would implement a cap-and-invest program to reduce transportation sector emissions across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic re...

Both anthropogenic and naturally occurring air contaminants can be influenced by climate variability and change and, in turn, may have important implications for human health. Anthropogenic ozone (O3) is a pollutant that poses serious health concerns and whose formation in the lower atmosphere depends on temperature and sunlight as well as other me...

Background Exposure to heat, air pollution, and pollen are associated with health outcomes, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Studies assessing the health impacts of climate change have considered increased exposure to these risk factors separately, though they may be increasing simultaneously for some populations and may act synerg...

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the emerging health profile of the changing climate. The 2020 report presents 43 indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerabilities; adaptation, planning, and resilience...

Previous studies demonstrated that global warming can lead to deteriorated air quality even when anthropogenic emissions were kept constant, which has been called a climate change penalty on air quality. It is expected that anthropogenic emissions will decrease significantly in the future considering the aggressive emission control actions in China...

Coccidioidomycosis, or Valley fever, is an infectious fungal disease currently endemic to the southwestern United States. Symptoms of Valley fever range in severity from flu-like illness to severe morbidity and mortality. Warming temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns may cause the area of endemicity to expand northward throughout the w...

Cities around the world are taking action to limit greenhouse gas emissions through ambitious climate targets and climate action plans. These strategies are likely to simultaneously improve local air quality, leading to public health and monetary co-benefits. We quantify and monetarily value the health impacts of eliminating emissions from the City...

Background: Studies of PM 2.5 health effects are influenced by the spatiotemporal coverage and accuracy of exposure estimates. The use of satellite remote sensing data such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) in PM 2.5 exposure modeling has increased recently in the US and elsewhere in the world. However, few studies have addressed this issue in souther...

Plain Language Summary Recent advances in satellite remote sensing enable observation‐based tracking of climate change and air pollution with relatively high spatial resolution globally. The 2018 NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Science Team (HAQAST) “Indicators” Tiger Team launched a collaboration between ~20 NASA‐supported scientists and civil...

Background: Research on the relationship between long-term exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μ m ( PM 2.5 ) and poor cognitive function is lacking in developing countries, especially in highly polluted areas. Objectives: We evaluated associations of long-term exposure to PM 2.5 with poor cognitive function...

Fasting blood glucose level is the primary indicator for the diagnosis of diabetes. We aim to conduct a longitudinal study on the association between long-term fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and fasting blood glucose concentrations. We recruited and followed up 1449 participants older than 65 years of age in 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2017 in...

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a well-established traffic emissions tracer and has been associated with multiple adverse health outcomes. Short- and long-term exposure to NO2 has been studied and is well-documented in existing literature, but information on intermediate-term NO2 effects and mortality is lacking, despite biological plausibility. We obtai...

Regulatory monitoring networks are often too sparse to support community-scale PM2.5 exposure assessment while emerging low-cost sensors have the potential to fill in the gaps. To date, limited studies, if any, have been conducted to utilize low-cost sensor measurements to improve PM2.5 prediction with high spatiotemporal resolutions based on stati...

Background: While previous studies uncovered individual vulnerabilities to health risks during catastrophic storms, few evaluated the population vulnerability which is more important for identifying areas in greatest need of intervention. Objectives: We assessed the association between community factors and multiple health outcomes, and develope...

Background: In developed countries, prenatal maternal stress has been associated with poor fetal growth, however this has not been evaluated in rural sub-Saharan Africa. We evaluated the effect of prenatal maternal stress on fetal growth and birth outcomes in rural Ghana. Methods: Leveraging a prospective, rural Ghanaian birth cohort, we ascerta...