New SoGA 2025 Report

The report covers global air quality and health impacts, including data on noncommunicable diseases.
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Research Reports

HEI’s mission is to provide credible science to support environmental regulations and other policy decisions. The results of each HEI-funded project undergo peer-review by outside scientists and the Health Review Committee. The HEI Research Reports contain the Investigator’s Report and the Review Committee’s evaluation of the study, summarized in a Commentary or short Critique.

ISSN 1041-5505 (print)        ISSN 2688-6855 (online) 

REACH-OUT: Race, Ethnicity, and Air Pollution in COVID-19 Hospitalization OUTcomes

Research Report 230
Jeanette Stingone
Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir
Sneha Kannoth
Mehr Shafiq
Cong Zhang
Sandra Albrecht
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Air Pollution
Nitrogen Oxides
Ozone & Oxidants
Particulate Matter

This report presents a study led by Jeanette A. Stingone at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Stingone and colleagues evaluated whether associations between long-term air pollution exposures and severe COVID-19 health outcomes varied by New York City neighborhoods that differed in environmental vulnerability, as defined by social and structural characteristics.

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Accounting for Mobility in Air Pollution Exposure Estimates in Studies on Long-Term Health Effects

Research Report 229
Kees de Hoogh
Benjamin Flückiger
Nicole Probst-Hensch
Danielle Vienneau
Ayoung Jeong
Medea Imboden
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Air Pollution
Nitrogen Oxides
Particulate Matter
Traffic-related
Exposure Methods

This report presents a study led by Kees de Hoogh at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. de Hoogh and colleagues evaluated whether long-term exposure estimates that account for people’s mobility would improve exposure assessment, using novel agent-based modeling.

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Optimizing Air Pollution Exposure Assessment with Application to Cognitive Function

Research Report 228
Lianne Sheppard
Magali Blanco
Annie Doubleday
Adam Szpiro
Jianzhao Bi
Christopher Zuidema
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Air Pollution
Nitrogen Oxides
Particulate Matter
Traffic-related
Exposure Methods
Statistical Methods

This report presents a study led by Lianne Sheppard at the University of Washington. Sheppard and colleagues compared the performance of different exposure assessment study design features on long-term exposure and health estimates in Seattle, Washington.

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Investigating the Consequences of Measurement Error of Gradually More Sophisticated Long-Term Personal Exposure Models in Assessing Health Effects: The London Study (MELONS)

Research Report 227
Klea Katsouyanni
Dimitris Evangelopoulos
Dylan Wood
Benjamin Barratt
Hanbin Zhang
Heather Walton
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Nitrogen Oxides
Ozone & Oxidants
Particulate Matter
Exposure Methods
Statistical Methods

This report presents a study led by Klea Katsouyanni at Imperial College London. Katsouyanni and colleagues evaluated whether detailed estimates of long-term, personal exposures to outdoor air pollution yield better estimates of the health effects of exposure than less detailed approaches.

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Comparison of Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure from Mobile and Routine Monitoring, Low-Cost Sensors, and Dispersion Models

Research Report 226
Gerard Hoek
Femke Bouma
Nicole Janssen
Joost Wesseling
Sjoerd van Ratingen
Jules Kerckhoffs
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Particulate Matter
Traffic-related
Exposure Methods

This report presents a study led by Gerard Hoek at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Hoek and colleagues compared the performance of a suite of long-term exposure assessment models in the Netherlands for four air pollutants: ultrafine particles, black carbon, fine particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide.

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Air Pollution Exposure, Prefrontal Connectivity, and Emotional Behavior in Early Adolescence

Research Report 225
Megan Herting
Elisabeth Burnor
Hedyeh Ahmadi
Sandrah P Eckel
William Gauderman
Joel Schwartz
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Nitrogen Oxides
Particulate Matter

This report presents a study led by Megan Herting of the University of Southern California, a recipient of HEI’s 2019 Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award. Herting and colleagues examined whether childhood and prenatal exposure to residential outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was associated with neurodevelopment over a 1-year period in a nationally representative cohort of children ages 9–10 in the United States.

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Effect of Air Pollution Reductions on Mortality During the COVID-19 Lockdowns in Early 2020

Research Report 224
Kai Chen
Yiqun Ma
Anne Marb
Federica Nobile
Robert Dubrow
Massimo Stafoggia
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Nitrogen Oxides
Particulate Matter
Accountability

This report presents a study led by Kai Chen of the Yale School of Public Health. Chen and colleagues used the unique scenario of COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 to understand how a pause in human activity might affect day-to-day changes in air pollution and the resulting effects on health.

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Impacts of Vehicle Emission Regulations and Local Congestion Policies on Birth Outcomes Associated with Traffic Air Pollution

Research Report 223
Perry Hystad
Mary Willis
Elaine Hill
David Schrank
John Molitor
Andrew Larkin
et al.
2025
Topics: 
Traffic-related
Accountability

This report presents a study led by Perry Hystad of Oregon State University. Hystad and colleagues examined whether reductions in traffic-related air pollution were associated with improved birth outcomes in Texas from 1996 to 2016.

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