September 17, 2025

By Ana Lucía Peralta

A team of researchers connected to the Urban Health Collaborative (UHC), including trainees and investigators from Brazil, Mexico and the U.S., attended the Joint Annual meeting of the International Society of Exposure Science and the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology 2025 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, from August 17-20, 2025. This year’s conference theme, “Global Environmental Health Equity across the Lifespan”, featured the latest findings in exposure science, environmental health, and ways of advancing environmental health equity across populations worldwide.

The meeting included plenary sessions, panel discussions, symposia, and posters on topics ranging from the health impacts of chemical exposures and climate hazards to exposure assessment methods, inequities in exposure, vulnerable populations, policy and community engagement, and effective communication of scientific findings to stakeholders and the media.

UHC-affiliated researchers who attended the conference brought expertise on the health impacts of climate hazards in both Latin American and U.S cities, sharing their work through oral presentations and posters. These included a symposium co-led by team members from the Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project and the Drexel ResearCh Center on Extreme Weather and Urban Health (CCUH) titled “Climate change and health across the lifespan in urban Latin America”, which highlighted the impact of temperature, heat, and floods on overall mortality, homicide mortality, road traffic deaths, and diabetes mellitus, as well as the individual and urban features that modify these risks.

Beyond the symposium, UHC researchers also presented work on topics such as geographic patterns and trends in floods and tropical cyclones in Latin American cities, heat exposure and kidney mortality, the effect of school environments on air pollution-related health outcomes, and the role of greenspace in heat-related mortality.

UHC trainees – 3 PhD students and 3 postdocs – played a significant role at ISEE, presenting four oral sessions and four posters. Additionally, Karla Rangel, a PhD student from the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública in Mexico, received the Best Abstract Poster Award among student researchers for her SALURBAL work on temperature and kidney disease mortality.