Simple traffic measures significantly reduce the exposure of primary school children to NO₂

According to Public Health England (PHE, 2019) air quality is the largest environmental health risk in the UK; long-term exposure to air pollution claims some 28-36,000 premature deaths each year. It shortens lives and contributes to chronic illness. Health can be affected both by short-term, high-pollution episodes and by long-term exposure to lower levels of pollution. Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) are directly involved in managing and monitoring local air quality, but often direct action is only taken when there are exceedances of statutory limits and standards. A previous publication, REHIS Journal Autumn 2018, makes the case that long term exposure to lower than limit levels of air pollution can have significant health impacts in later life and that the developing lungs of children are at risk. PHE goes on to state that ‘effective communication of health messages about air pollution and appropriate action can save lives and improve quality of life for many’ (PHE, 2019)

WIGGLE-MATCHING USING KNOWN-AGE PINE FROM JERMYN STREET, LONDON

A slice of pine from the period covered by single-year calibration data (Stuiver 1993) was selected to serve as part of the quality assurance procedures of the English Heritage radiocarbon dating program. following successful wiggle-matching, of (14)C measurements from structural 15th century English oak timbers (Hamilton et al. 2007). The timber selected was a roofing element front it house on Jermyn Street, central London, demonstrated by dendrochronology to have been felled in AD 1670. Eighteen single-ring samples were dated by the (14)C laboratories at Groningen, Oxford, and SUERC: each laboratory was sent a random selection of 6 samples. This approach was intended to mimic the mix of samples and relative ages incorporated into Bayesian chronological models during the project research. This paper presents the results of this study.</p

Older UK sheltered housing tenants’ perceptions of wellbeing and their usage of hospital services

The aim of this study was to examine sheltered housing tenants’ views of health and wellbeing, the strategies they adopted to support their wellbeing and their use of health and social care services through a Health Needs Assessment. Sheltered housing in the UK is a form of service-integrated housing for people, predominantly over 60. The study used a parallel, three-strand mixed method approach to encompass the tenants’ perceptions of health and wellbeing (n=96 participants), analysis of the service’s health and wellbeing database and analysis of emergency and elective hospital admissions (n= 978 tenant data sets for the period January to December 2012). Tenants’ perceptions of wellbeing were seen to reinforce much of the previous work on the subject with strategies required to sustain social, community, physical, economic, environmental, leisure, emotional and spiritual dimensions. Of the tenants’ self-reported chronic conditions, arthritis, heart conditions and breathing problems were identified as their most common health concerns. Hospital admission data indicated that 43% of the tenant population was admitted to hospital (886 admissions) with 53% emergency and 47% elective admissions. The potential cost of emergency as opposed to elective admissions was substantial. The mean length of stay for emergency admissions was 8.2 days (median 3.0 days). While elective hospital admission had a mean length of stay of 1.0 day (median 0.0 days). These results suggest the need for multi-professional health, social care and housing services interventions to facilitate sheltered housing tenants’ aspirations and support their strategies to live well and independently in their own homes. Equally there is a need to increase tenants’ awareness of health conditions and their management; the importance of services which offer facilitation, resources and support and the key role played by prevention and reablement

GetREAL Intervention Manual. A staff training intervention for inpatient mental health rehabilitation units aimed at increasing patients’ engagement in activities

This intervention is designed to be carried out by a small team of experts who work for a short period of time with local staff in mental health rehabilitation units in England. The aim of the intervention is to develop local staff’s work with service users in these units in order for them to be increasingly engaged in activities of their choice and to increase their activity levels. The GetREAL Intervention Manual details the approaches, stages, actions and tools for the intervention

The Case for Agricultural Climate Services in Africa

Ninety percent of the world’s farms are managed by small-scale farmers, feeding millions of people. Unfortunately, those farmers face significant impacts from climate variability and change. These impacts disrupt their ability to meet livelihoods and sustenance needs, and to produce enough food for a growing world. Climate services provide information about these impacts and aim to support agricultural decision-making for improved livelihoods, resilience, and food security

Making Climate Services Work for Africa's Farmers at Scale

The substantial body of knowledge about good practice in climate services suggests that making climate services work for farmers at a national scale requires managing tradeoffs between meeting farmers’ context-specific needs and providing cost-effective services at scale

Advancing Impact Evaluations of Agricultural Climate Services in Africa

The design and implementation of effective climate information services (CIS) requires understanding the extent to which they impact the decisions and lives of those who use them