Seed Grant

As climate change continues to worsen, the world is warming rapidly, with 2023 being the hottest year ever recorded according to NASA. The repercussions of climate change have severe implications for worker health and safety as heat stress begins to affect workers around the globe. Furthermore, physiologically, females have greater difficulty in regulating their body temperature and consume more energy while working, increasing fatigue in extreme weather. A systematic review and meta-analysis are crucially needed to comprehensively examine the complex impact of extreme heat on workers’ mental and physical health and their work performance in the agricultural and construction sectors. This project aims to (1) Examine the effects of extreme heat events on mental and physical health among construction and agricultural workers. (2) Analyze the mental and physical health effects, including solastalgia and ecoanxiety, of extreme heat on work performance in these sectors by sex and gender. (3) Synthesize the literature quantitatively to generate effect sizes and analyze variation through fitted meta-analysis models of interventions implemented to address the impacts of extreme heat on physical and mental health outcomes. 

Climate change adversely affects human health resulting in higher demand for health care services. Radiology is central to the functioning of a highly complex health system. On one hand, delivery of medical imaging generates considerable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation efforts are needed to improve environmental sustainability. On the other hand, adaptation strategies are needed to build resiliency to the current and future impacts of climate change. Data on the association of climate-related environmental exposures with imaging volumes is needed to inform preparedness planning in radiology departments and to implement policies to address health disparities. The overarching goal of this study is to inform adaptation and resilience strategies to prepare for the effects of climate change and improve environmental sustainability in radiology at local, national and global levels. We will achieve this goal through three aims: (1) determine age and sex-specific associations of environmental exposures with imaging utilization, (2) evaluate associations between exposures and imaging and utilization in relation to patient volumes, (3) explore downstream GHG emissions due to climate-related excess imaging utilization.  

Current estimates suggest 80% of the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint stems directly from the linear economy of medical supplies. The widespread use of plastic materials and disposability in medicine administration and packaging is not inherent to these technologies or practices, but are shaped by concerns around infection control, inequities between health systems in terms of infrastructure for sterilization and waste management, and the marketing efforts of the multi-national medicine device industry. The goalof this project is to catalyze and prioritize policy-relevant research needed to mitigate the harmful effects of plastics, while assuring equitable access to essential medicines. This will be done by: (1) Systematically mapping and describing the available evidence on plastics across the pharmaceutical lifecycle (i.e., development, manufacturing, packaging, administration, disposal); (2) Synthesizing evidence on the role and impacts of plastics across the pharmaceutical lifespan; (3) Informing public health policy positions on the regulation of plastics used for medicines administration and packaging; (4) Identifying knowledge gaps and developing a research agenda related to governance and regulation of plastics across pharmaceutical lifecycle. 

Globally, the healthcare sector generates 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e), which is 4.4% of global emissions, making it the 5^th largest emitter in the world if it were a country. Operating rooms, in particular, carry a heavy environmental footprint: they are 6 times more energy-intense than the rest of the hospital and generate 70% of a hospital’s total waste volume. Currently, there is a growing commitment to implementing sustainability interventions to support greener hospitals. Some commonly studied strategies include customizing surgical trays to create leaner instrument sets; strengthening recycling systems; reducing surgical waste; transitioning to reusable devices; using alcohol hand scrubs instead of water-based surgical scrubs; and optimizing disposal of used medical equipment while seeking out more environmentally responsible procurement options. Despite growing interest in promoting sustainability in healthcare, there lacks a comprehensive guideline that details evidence-based interventions for reducing operating rooms’ environmental footprint. The objective of this project is to develop a guideline to increase the environmental sustainability of operating rooms. More specifically, we plan to conduct a series of rapid reviews to gather and synthesize the evidence on interventions that aim to decrease the carbon footprint of ORs. In addition, we plan to conduct a modified Delphi to come to consensus on the guideline recommendations generated from the reviews.

Beyond physical health sequelae, climate change impacts mental health in profound ways. It is further well recognized that the unfolding crisis widens existing health disparities and people with intersecting vulnerabilities, including women and people with pre-existing mental health conditions, are particularly impacted. Using a structured survey and semi-structured focus groups, the study aims to explore how the lives and daily functions of women with mental health conditions have been affected by climate change, and what they perceive to be the gaps in interventions in the health care system. Participants will be recruited from the Women’s Inpatient Unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s largest academic psychiatric hospital. Insights from this pilot site will serve as the foundation of a larger mixed-methods study in Canada. The study is the Canadian arm of a planned multi-site project in collaboration with two low- and middle-income countries: Pakistan and Nigeria. They are, respectively, the fifth and sixth most populous countries in the world, and both emerging economies that grapple with unprecedented severe climate events. Comparative analyses and triangulation of results would allow an enriched and nuanced understanding of context-specific and universal experiences, and inform mitigation and adaptation strategies that benefit collective global mental health.