Michael Jerrett was the first to graduate from the collaborative MA in political science and environmental studies at the University of Toronto (U of T) ooooooin 1987. He subsequently completed a PhD in Geography at U of T and then worked for two years as a postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Health with Dr. John Eyles at McMaster University. Building on his specialties, Michael currently assesses air pollution-health associations in the United States and Canada, with special reference to geographic exposure models and social-spatial effect modifiers. He also pursues research in environmental accounting focusing on the determinants of and evaluation of environmental costs and benefits. He has designed and analyzed local, provincial, state, and national level health and environment databases in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Since 2001, Michael has participated in the American Cancer Society Particle Epidemiology Project. His work opened important field research connecting social determinants of health, air pollution health effects, and spatial analysis. Research results inform policy debates because the spatial analysis demonstrate that the health effects of air pollution are reduced but not eliminated by ecological confounding and are often modified by individual and neighborhood social characteristics.

Recent papers have been published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. One paper demonstrated that regardless of relative priorities, adverse environmental effects from human activity exert significant costs on the economic system. Other research details linkages between regional economic and environmental costs along the U.S.-Mexico border, assesses the short-term association between air pollution and mortality in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and explores the relationship between healthcare expenditures and environmental variables in that Canadian province.

Michael may be contacted at jerrett@berkeley.edu
His UC Berkeley faculty page is http://sph.berkeley.edu/faculty/jerrett.html