The Environmental Impact Analysis (EVIA) Lab at the NYU School of Global Public Health is dedicated to collaborating with the local government in investigating environmental risk factors of disease in order to enhance overall health and safety in New York City. The EVIA Lab is currently focused on the assessment of heavy metal concentration in soil near public schools and recreational parks in the Bronx and Queens in order to create a spatial distribution map to inform future research and public health policy aiming to address the community’s health. We aim to disseminate the research findings with academic and non-academic communities, to compose a public health policy report, and to emphasize the significant role of high heavy metal concentration in the blood as a hindrance to human development.
The EVIA Lab aims to:
To unite undergraduate and graduate public health students with diverse academic backgrounds to tackle complex urban environmental health problems, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
Provide a platform for interested students to learn state-of-the-art environmental health assessment methods.
Create a repository of environmental hazard databases for student and faculty scholarly use.
Develop partnerships with local governmental environmental and public health agencies.
Under the guidance of Dr. Caravanos and Dr. Ericson, a group of 5-10 GPH Masters students organized a student lab in July 2023. Since July they have collected and analyzed 500+ soil samples from The Bronx and Queens. The group meets biweekly at GPH. Future projects include: community air quality, noise pollution, solid waste management all within the context of environmental justice.
LEADERSHIP: Jack Caravanos (PhD), Bret Ericson (PhD), Prince Michael Amegbor (PhD), Ravi Kumar Chalhotra (MPH Candidate), and Rahul Kulkarni (MPH Candidate).