Climate change, health impacts are focuses of new UC research center

The University of Cincinnati has received a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund the new Cincinnati Center for Climate and Health.

The grant will support research into how climate change impacts human health — the single biggest health threat facing humanity, according to the World Health Organization.

The center's co-director Ardythe Morrow recently told 91.7 WVXU News that two of the center’s initial projects will focus on extreme heat exposure and the body’s immune responses.

“In Cincinnati, as in many places, the number of days above 90 degrees was fairly rare in the past,” said Morrow, PhD, MSc, professor and director of the Epidemiology division of the Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences at the College of Medicine. “Now it's happening far more frequently, and it has many potential different health effects, including the ability to sleep well in the evenings.”

Center co-director George Leikauf told News Radio 700 WLW that the summer heat in Cincinnati is only going to grow more intense.

"We're predicting it will accelerate in 10 to 15 years. We don't have much time to start addressing this problem, but we can solve it. There are solutions," said Leikauf, professor in the Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine division of the Department of Internal Medicine at the College of Medicine.

So, one research project will involve firefighters from suburban Cincinnati communities. Researchers will track their health metrics before, during and after fires to determine the stress that heat from fires puts on firefighters’ bodies.

That data will inform another study, monitoring the health of elderly people living without air conditioning in three vulnerable Cincinnati neighborhoods.

“We're working with [the] elderly population in households where there isn't any air conditioning and using current technologies, wearables like Fitbit, to be able to monitor heart rate,” Morrow told WVXU. “Also, we're getting swabs from them to look at immune readout before, during and after extreme heat.”

The research findings could shape how communities adapt to the warming climate.

More than 40 UC faculty members from a variety of disciplines will work with the center. Click here to read the full UC News report on the new Cincinnati Center for Climate and Health.

Featured image at top: Illustration of global warming/Provided.