ABOUT THE LECTURE:
By integrating personal exposure assessment and clinical assessment into a novel quasi-experimental design, I led studies to examine the health impact of urban traffic emissions. In this study design, people with asthma, COPD, heart disease, or without chronic disease walked in a traffic-busy street vs. in a green park. Results showed worse health outcomes following street walk compared to park walk. The study findings provided evidence to support several cities’ efforts to replace polluting buses with cleaner buses and develop reduced traffic zones. I led studies that leveraged the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a natural experiment to confirm biological mechanisms underlying air pollution cardiovascular effects and demonstrated that the air pollution control policies improved air quality and improved birth outcomes. My recent indoor air purification trials highlight the importance on behaviour interventions to improve the efficacy of HEPA filtration in mitigating health risks from particulate and wildfire smoke exposure. This presentation will discuss key points from these studies on implications of public health policy and practice.
HOST:
Dr Preethi Prajod
Instructor
SingHealth Duke-NUS Oral Health Academic Clinical Programme
VENUE:
Duke-NUS Medical School
Amphitheatre, Level 2
CONTACT PERSON:
Ms Sherlyn Leo (sherlynleo@duke-nus.edu.sg)
Duke-NUS Research Affairs Department
Date and Time
18 May 2026 @ 12:00 - 18 May 2026 @ 13:00
Speaker
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Dr Junfeng (Jim) Zhang
Professor of Global and Environmental Health
Duke Global Health Institute
Duke University School of Medicine
Dr. Jim Zhang is Professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke Global Health Institute. He conducted research over 3 decades on air pollution exposure and health. He published 380+ peer-reviewed papers in medical journals and environmental science journals. He is a contributor to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC. He is an AAAS fellow. He received the highest science award from International Society of Exposure Science.