Recipients of PSC Small Grant Awards

The Ronald and Deborah Freedman Fund us supporting pilot research efforts in Bangladesh to establish a long-term study on the effects climate change on environmental health outcomes.  Pam Jagger has been a Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan since 2018, and is an affiliate of the Population Studies Center. Trained as an applied economist, Pam Jagger has had a longstanding interest in the relationship between environmental conditions and human well-being in low-income country settings. Research on climate change and human health is well aligned with her broader focus on poverty-environment dynamics. Health status is the primary reason that people fall into poverty, or find themselves trapped in poverty. Pam Jagger describes the project:

“We have selected Bangladesh, one of the countries hardest hit by climate change, to explore the effect of increased climate risk on environmental health burden. We are particularly interested in water and air pollution related environmental health burden. Populations in low-income countries are expected to experience the negative effects of both rapid and slow onset climate change more significantly than populations in higher income countries. They concurrently face considerable health risk as a result of poor water and sanitation and exposure to household and ambient air pollution. We expect that climate change will exacerbate these risks. I have observed first hand, through my research in Malawi, the serious impact that climate shocks have on populations with limited capacity to weather shocks. Many communities in low-income countries are experiencing repeated climate shocks year after year, making it nearly impossible to adapt and cope. Our goal is to lay the groundwork for a multi-year study examining communities, household, and individual environmental health burden in the face of different climate change impacts including flooding, drought, extreme heat, and other climate shocks. We are working with a highly regarded health research partner in Bangladesh to co-produce pathbreaking research in the area of climate and environmental health. Together we will develop research and engagement opportunities in this critical population studies domain.”

The seed funding will be used for two activities related to this work plan. It will support the collection of an additional round of household survey data in low-income communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh to show how season variation influences the association between climate shocks and environmental health burden. The funding will also support travel costs for Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Jafor Ahmed to travel to Bangladesh to train the field team and oversee the data collection process.