The 2024 South America ablaze: health impacts and policy imperatives for protecting population health in an era of wildfires.

The 2024 wildfires in South America, particularly in the Amazon and Pantanal, were not only a disaster for ecosystems, but also for public health and people's health and wellbeing. These record-breaking fires were likely driven by overlapping triggers: climate change-related heat and droughts and human-driven land-use change. We documented that rapidly evolving wildfires together with limited preparedness and slow responses from emergency and health agencies resulted in severe health impacts, including several fatalities and thousands people displaced, injured, and/or with cardiorespiratory symptoms.

Time-Series Analysis of Infant Mortality Disaggregated by Race, Ethnicity, and Specific Causes After 6-Week Abortion Ban.

Introduction: In 2021, Texas Senate Bill 8 banned abortion after 6 weeks of gestation. Prior research has shown persistent differences in infant mortality by race/ethnicity and an overall increase in infant mortality in association with Senate Bill 8. It is unclear whether recent changes may be differential by race, ethnicity, and causes of death.

Green hospitals: maximizing health and climate benefits globally.

Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to global health, with the healthcare sector itself contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. This perspective presents an innovative, adaptable framework for integrating sustainable and climate-friendly practices into healthcare settings across diverse economic contexts. We examine energy efficiency, waste management, water sustainability, supply chain optimization, telemedicine, and biophilic design in healthcare.

A health impact assessment of progress towards urban nature targets in the 96 C40 cities.

Background: Urban greenspaces (eg, parks and trees) and blue spaces (eg, rivers and coasts) improve climate regulation and human health. In 2021, the mayors of 31 cities in the C40 Climate Leadership Group set 2030 targets for the percentage of urban greenspace and population with nearby natural (green or blue) space. We quantified annual all-cause mortality reductions from progress towards these targets for C40's 96 member cities.

The epidemiologic case for urban health: conceptualizing and measuring the magnitude of challenges and potential benefits.

We discuss how epidemiology has been and can continue to be used to advance understanding of the links between urban areas and health informed by an existing urban-health conceptual framework. This framework considers urban areas as contexts for health, determinants of health and modifiers of health pathways, and part of a complex system that affects health. We highlight opportunities for descriptive epidemiology to inform the context of urban health, for example, by characterizing the social and physical environments that give rise to health and the actions that change those conditions.

Greenness and averted mortality in 390 cities in China (2000-2020).

Background: China's growth over recent decades rapidly transformed the urban landscapes. Green spaces provide numerous health benefits including acting as nature-based solutions for climate change risks. Our study aims to track greenness trends in urban areas in China and quantify the health impact of greenness on adult mortality.

Environmental justice mapping tools in the United States: A review of national and state tools.

Environmental justice (EJ) mapping tools are geographic information system (GIS)-based digital maps that integrate environmental, socioeconomic, health, and demographic data to identify areas experiencing environmental injustices. These tools are increasingly used to guide investments toward disadvantaged communities. This review examines 25 EJ tools, describing their functionalities, coverage, and indicator types, ranging from biological susceptibilities to socioeconomic and environmental factors.

The Association of County-Level Presidential Election Outcome and COVID-19 Mortality in Colorado, 2020-2022.

Context: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic occurred during a time of political tension in the United States. County-level political environment may have been influential in COVID-19 outcomes.

Objective: This study examined the association between county-level political environment and age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates from 2020 to 2022.

Parking and Public Health.

Purpose Of Review: Parking is a ubiquitous feature of the built environment, but its implications for public health are under-examined. This narrative review synthesizes literature to describe pathways through which parking may affect population health.

Recent Findings: We begin by contextualizing the issue, outlining key terminology, the sheer scale of land dedicated to parking, and the historical factors that led to this dominant land use.

Is home where the heat is? comparing residence-based with mobility-based measures of heat exposure in San Diego, California.

Background: Heat can vary spatially within an urban area. Individual-level heat exposure may thus depend on an individual's day-to-day travel patterns (also called mobility patterns or activity space), yet heat exposure is commonly measured based on place of residence.

Objective: In this study, we compared measures assessing exposure to two heat indicators using place of residence with those defined considering participants' day-to-day mobility patterns.

Two Decades of Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment: Insights From the Use of WHO's AirQ and AirQ+ Tools.

Objectives: We evaluated studies that used the World Health Organization's (WHO) AirQ and AirQ+ tools for air pollution (AP) health risk assessment (HRA) and provided best practice suggestions for future assessments.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive review of studies using WHO's AirQ and AirQ+ tools, searching several databases for relevant articles, reports, and theses from inception to Dec 31, 2022.

Results: We identified 286 studies that met our criteria.

Public Health Impacts of Ambient Particulate Matter Pollution in Libya from 1990 to 2019: An Analysis of the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study.

Air pollution is recognized as a critical global health risk, yet there has been no comprehensive assessment of its impact on public health in Libya until now. This study evaluates the burden of disease associated with ambient particulate matter (PM) in Libya, drawing on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. By integrating satellite-based estimates, chemical transport models, and ground-level measurements, PM exposure and its effects on mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) across the different sexes and all age groups from 1990 to 2019 are estimated.

Health science students' preparedness for climate change: a scoping review on knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Introduction: Climate change (CC) is a global public health issue, and the role of health professionals in addressing its impact is crucial. However, to what extent health professionals are prepared to deal with CC-related health problems is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health students about the CC.

Penalized distributed lag interaction model: Air pollution, birth weight, and neighborhood vulnerability.

Maternal exposure to air pollution during pregnancy has a substantial public health impact. Epidemiological evidence supports an association between maternal exposure to air pollution and low birth weight. A popular method to estimate this association while identifying windows of susceptibility is a distributed lag model (DLM), which regresses an outcome onto exposure history observed at multiple time points.

The 2023 Latin America report of the Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for health-centred climate-resilient development.

In 2023, a series of climatological and political events unfolded, partly driving forward the global climate and health agenda while simultaneously exposing important disparities and vulnerabilities to climate-related events. On the policy front, a significant step forward was marked by the inaugural Health Day at COP28, acknowledging the profound impacts of climate change on health. However, the first-ever Global Stocktake showed an important gap between the current progress and the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement, underscoring the urgent need for further and decisive action.

Advancing Health Equity through 15-min Cities and Chrono-urbanism.

Implementing the 15-min city and chrono-urbanism aims to improve sustainability and quality of life by ensuring residents' proximity to essential services. The 15-min city model is gaining global traction, with localized adaptations to suit communities' needs. Beyond environmental motivations, 15-min cities can benefit public health through enhanced walkability, social cohesion, and universal accessibility.

Addressing Health Equity in the Context of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration Technologies.

Purpose Of Review: To describe the role of health equity in the context of carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) technologies.

Recent Findings: CCUS technologies have the potential to both improve and worsen health equity. They could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a major contributor to climate change, but they could also have negative health impacts like air and noise pollution.

Tracking Progress Toward Urban Nature Targets Using Landcover and Vegetation Indices: A Global Study for the 96 C40 Cities.

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 evaluate progress toward these targets in the 96 C40 cities using globally available, high-resolution data sets for landcover and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).

Sustainability and Equity in Urban Development (S&EUD): A Content Analysis of "Bright Spots" from the Accelerating City Equity (ACE) Project.

Sustainable and equitable urban development (S&EUD) is vital to promote healthy lives and well-being for all ages. Recognizing equity as core to urban development is essential to ensure that cities are inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The aim of this study was to identify and assess the elements of equity and sustainability in exemplary bright spots using the ACE Framework and the United Nations' 5 Ps of Sustainable Development.

Health implications of urban tree canopy policy scenarios in Denver and Phoenix: A quantitative health impact assessment.

Background: Urban tree canopy (UTC) goals are a popular policy to increase urban vegetation, support climate strategies, and encourage a healthy environment. Health studies related to UTC are needed across cities to support evidence-based decision-making.

Methods: We used a quantitative Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to model the annual number of premature deaths prevented, and the number of stroke and dementia cases, under UTC goals in Denver, Colorado, and Phoenix, Arizona, USA, using standing policy goals (20% and 25% UTC, respectively) and 50% ("half-way") attainment scenarios from current levels (16.

The Countdown South America: increasing health opportunities by identifying the gaps in health and climate change research.

South America is experiencing the effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. These effects interact with existing social vulnerabilities, exacerbating their impact on the health and wellbeing of populations. This viewpoint highlights four main messages from the series, which presented key gaps from five different perspectives of health and climate.

A scoping review of the health co-benefits of climate mitigation strategies in South America.

Unlabelled: The accelerated production of greenhouse gases (GHG) due to human activity has led to unprecedented global warming, making climate mitigation strategies crucial for minimizing its impacts. South America, a region highly vulnerable to climate change, stands to benefit from implementing such strategies to reduce future risks and generate health co-benefits. This scoping review, aimed to assess the existing evidence on the health benefits of climate mitigation strategies in South American countries.

Health benefits of Open Streets programmes in Latin America: a quantitative health impact assessment.

Background: To improve physical activity in Latin American cities, several interventions have been promoted, such as Open Streets programmes. Our study aims to quantify the health and economic effects of Open Streets-related physical activity in 15 Latin American cities.

Methods: We used a quantitative health impact assessment approach to estimate annual premature deaths and disease incidence (ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, breast cancer, and dementia) avoided, the disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) gained, and the cost saving (from reduced premature mortality) related to increased physical activity from Open Streets programmes in 15 Latin American cities.

Who benefits from green spaces? Surrounding greenness and incidence of cardiovascular disease in a population-based electronic medical records cohort in Madrid.

The objective was to study the association between surrounding greenness and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) with a four years follow-up in almost half a million high CVD-risk women and men, as well as its differential effect by area-level deprivation in Madrid. We analyzed 2015-2018 primary healthcare electronic medical records for 437,513 high CVD risk individuals representing more than 95% of the population of that age range residing in Madrid. The outcome variable was any cardiovascular event.