Environmental Health

A efficient, clean-burning cookstove developed by the non-profit BURN Design Lab - collaborating with UW mechanical engineers - can reduce the amount of fuel needed by 55 percent while also cutting down on particulate pollution.

Such a stove can make a big difference for much of the world. Smoke from open cooking fires and stoves causes millions of deaths and illnesses, and gathering wood and other fuel can expose vulnerable populations to dangerous risks.

The University of Washington is part of a partnership which is using a water monitoring sensor on the state ferry MV Salish to help them gain information on low-oxygen water and ocean acidification.

The Salish crosses the Admiralty Inlet between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island 11 times a day, and the sensor, or acoustic doppler current profiler, will provide data on the speed and direction of water movement. The area was chosen to measure water exchange between the Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean.

Key crops eaten by a large portion of the world’s population have lower levels of zinc and iron when grown at the elevated carbon dioxide levels that scientists predict will occur by the middle of the century, according to a new study.

The UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences has been at the forefront of the sustainability movement – protecting the environment, prioritizing community members' health, and using environmental-health knowledge to bring about change.

The rise and fall of acid rain is a global experiment whose results are preserved in the geologic record.

Howard Frumkin, dean of UW’s School of Public Health, is also a scientist who for 15 years has paid attention to health impacts of climate change. He sat for a Q&A recently to characterize the problems of climate change and the public’s response. (His well-used bike panniers were on the floor beside his chair.)

Q. Do you have a specific focus or point of passion regarding climate change?

A. I’m passionate in general about protecting people’s well-being and creating habitats in which we can thrive and our great-grandchildren can, too.

Environmental advocates have a compelling story to tell, but it has been hard to get people to listen. The advocates argue that the ever increasing burden of human activities— reflected in rising world population, coupled with rising per capita GDP— is taking an increasingly heavy toll on the global environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday its selection of academic partners for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) University Challenge, a project designed to find innovative ways to increase public awareness of toxic chemical releases in their communities and around the country.

The University of Washington Bothell is among the eight partners the agency selected.