Measuring Contextual Determinants of Health: Experiments, Exposures, and Epidemiology of Noise and Air Pollution

Abstract

The atmosphere is rife with both chemical and physical exposures that may negatively impact the health of those exposed to them. In this dissertation both are explored via the lenses of experiments, exposure assessments, and epidemiology. The first paper is an epidemiological experiment, which examines the impact of both sound intensity levels and frequency composition on biomarkers of stress and cardiovascular activity. The second paper contains a descriptive analysis of the ambient levels of infrasound, low, mid, high, and A-weighted sound levels in a community inundated with major transportation networks. The third paper improves upon the second paper by construction spatial-temporal models of low, mid, high, and A-weighted sound levels in the city of Boston, using an elastic net variable selection approach. Finally, the fourth paper switches gears from physical exposures to chemical exposures. In this paper, models of PAHs—in particular, particle counts and active surface area—in 10 trucking terminals located in the northeast of the United States.