School Notes: School of Public Health
September/October 2018

Most Ohio fracking wells located in lower-income communities

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” wells used to procure natural gas produce large amounts of wastewater, which may contain toxic and radioactive compounds. The wastewater per well, ranging from 2 million to 14 million liters, is most commonly injected underground where it has the potential to contaminate water supplies used by people and animals.  A new study in Ohio led by the Yale School of Public Health finds that these waste disposal wells are disproportionately located in communities that have lower per capita incomes and lower population density compared to areas without these waste sites, after controlling for other sociodemographic and geographic variables. Specifically, the odds of a census block group containing an injection well were 16 percent lower for each $10,000 increase in median income.

New center advances implementation and prevention sciences

A new center at the Yale School of Public Health will promote the adoption of research findings into clinical practice and develop and assess sustainable, cost-effective interventions to improve public health domestically and around the world.

The Center for Methods of Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS) is led by Donna Spiegelman, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics. The center will lead research on quantitative and qualitative methods for implementation and prevention science in global public health and provide support for global health projects in such areas as HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease prevention.

Alumni Day 2018: Yale as a lab for social impact

Yale School of Public Health alumni returned to New Haven on June 1 to reconnect with classmates and friends and to learn about a growing network of social entrepreneurship on campus that is being used to promote change locally and globally. Dean Sten H. Vermund welcomed the large alumni gathering to the New Haven Lawn Club on Whitney Avenue, thanking them for all that they do for the school in the way of mentorships for existing students, recruitment of graduates, and donations to scholarship funds and other programs.