Contributor(s): Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Dr Ute Collier, Dr Sefi Roth, Dr Thomas Smith | Sue Windebank speaks to Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah about her campaigning work for both clean air and a new inquest into the causes of her daughter’s death. In 2013, her daughter Ella Roberta died from a rare and severe form of asthma – she was just nine years old. According to an expert report there was a "real prospect” that without unlawful levels of air pollution near their home, Ella would not have died. As well as the impact on health, the episode looks at the effects of air pollution on crime and education. It also examines air pollution on the London Underground, forest fires and clean cooking. Addressing these issue are: Dr Ute Collier, Head of Energy at Practical Action; Dr Sefi Roth, Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics at LSE; and Dr Thomas Smith, Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography at LSE.

Contributor(s): Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Dr Ute Collier, Dr Sefi Roth, Dr Thomas Smith | Seven million people die of air pollution, worldwide, every year. This episode of LSE IQ asks how this invisible killer can be tackled. 

Sue Windebank speaks to Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah about her campaigning work for both clean air and a new inquest into the causes of her daughter’s death. In 2013, her daughter Ella Roberta died from a rare and severe form of asthma – she was just nine years old.  According to an expert report there was a "real prospect” that without unlawful levels of air pollution near their home, Ella would not have died. 

As well as the impact on health, the episode looks at the effects of air pollution on crime and education. It also examines air pollution on the London Underground, forest fires and clean cooking.  

Addressing these issue are: Dr Ute Collier, Head of Energy at Practical Action; Dr Sefi Roth, Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics at LSE; and Dr Thomas Smith, Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography at LSE.  

 

Contributors  

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah 

Dr Ute Collier 

Dr Sefi Roth 

Dr Thomas Smith 

 

Research 

‘Crime is in the Air: The Contemporaneous Relationship between Air Pollution and Crime’ by Malvina Brody, Sefi Roth and Lutz Sager, a discussion paper by IZA Institute of Labor Economics.  

‘The Long-Run Economic Consequences of High-Stakes Examinations: Evidence from Transitory Variation in Pollution’ by Avraham Ebenstein, Victor Lavy and Sefi Roth in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.  

‘Spatial variability of fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) on the London Underground network’ by Brynmor M Saunders, James D Smith, T.E.L Smith, David Green and B Barratt in the journal Urban Climate.  

‘Review of emissions from smouldering peat fires and their contribution to regional haze episodes’ Yuqi Hu, Nieves Fernandez-Anez, T.E.L Smith and Guillermo Rein in the International Journal of Wildland Fire.

Contributor(s): Dr Stephen L. Roberts, Dr Leeza Osipenko, Professor Barbara Prainsack, Dr James Somauroo | With more and more information about us available electronically and online, this episode of LSE IQ asks, ‘Is big data good for our health?’ Advances in bio-medical technologies, along with electronic health records and the information we generate through our mobile phones, Smart Watches or Fit bits, our social media posts and search engine queries, mean that there is a torrent of information about our bodies, our health and our diseases out there. Alongside this, the tremendous growth in computing power and data storage means that this ‘Big Data’ can be stored and aggregated and then analysed by sophisticated algorithms for connections, comparisons and insights. The promise of all of this is that big data will create opportunities for medical breakthroughs, help tailor medical interventions to us as individuals and create technologies that will speed up and improve healthcare. And, of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve also seen some countries use data, generated from people’s mobile phones, to track and trace the disease. All of this poses opportunities for the tech giants and others who want to be part of the goldrush for our data - and to then sell solutions back to us What are the risks in handing over our most personal data? Will it allow big data to deliver on its hype? And is it a fair exchange? In this episode, Oliver Johnson speaks to Dr Leeza Osipenko, Senior Lecturer in Practice in LSE’s Department of Health Policy; Professor Barbara Prainsack, Professor of Comparative Policy Analysis at the University of Vienna and Professor Sociology at King’s College London; Dr Stephen L. Roberts, LSE Fellow in Global Health Policy in LSE’s Department of Health Policy; and Dr James Somauroo, founder of the healthtech agency somX and presenter of The Health-Tech Podcast.

Contributor(s): Dr Stephen Roberts, Dr Leeza Osipenko, Professor Barbara Prainsack, Dr James Somauroo | With more and more information about us available electronically and online, this episode of LSE IQ asks, ‘Is big data good for our health?’

Advances in bio-medical technologies, along with electronic health records and the information we generate through our mobile phones, Smart Watches or Fit bits, our social media posts and search engine queries, mean that there is a torrent of information about our bodies, our health and our diseases out there.

Alongside this, the tremendous growth in computing power and data storage means that this ‘Big Data’ can be stored and aggregated and then analysed by sophisticated algorithms for connections, comparisons and insights.

The promise of all of this is that big data will create opportunities for medical breakthroughs, help tailor medical interventions to us as individuals and create technologies that will speed up and improve healthcare.

And, of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve also seen some countries use data, generated from people’s mobile phones, to track and trace the disease.

All of this poses opportunities for the tech giants and others who want to be part of the goldrush for our data -  and to then sell solutions back to us

What are the risks in handing over our most personal data? Will it allow big data to deliver on its hype? And is it a fair exchange?

In this episode, Oliver Johnson speaks to Dr Leeza Osipenko, Senior Lecturer in Practice in LSE’s Department of Health Policy; Professor Barbara Prainsack, Professor of Comparative Policy Analysis at the University of Vienna and Professor Sociology at King’s College London; Dr Stephen L. Roberts, LSE Fellow in Global Health Policy in LSE’s Department of Health Policy; and Dr James Somauroo, founder of the healthtech agency somX and presenter of The Health-Tech Podcast.

 

Research

Blockchain’s potential to improve clinical trials by Leeza Osipenko

Big Data, Algorithmic Governmentality and the Regulation of Pandemic Risk by Stephen Roberts

Personalized Medicine: Empowered Patients in the 21st Century? by Barbara Prainsack

 

 

Contributors

Dr Leeza Osipenko

Professor Barbara Prainsack

Dr Stephen L. Roberts

Dr James Somauroo

Contributor(s): Clare Wenham | A special bite-sized episode of LSE IQ asks, “What does gender have to do with pandemics?” Cholera, Ebola, Influenza, MERS, SARs, Smallpox, Yellow fever, Zika and of course novel Coronavirus – these are just some of the pandemic, epidemic diseases listed by the World Health Organisation. And until a few months ago, many of us – particularly in the West – had remained comfortably unaffected by these terrible diseases. Yet today it seems dreadfully routine to consume daily infection rates and sobering death tolls. And while the exact figures are unclear – men seem to be dying at a far higher rate. So it might be strange to be focus on women at a time like this. But in this episode Sue Windebank speaks to Dr Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE about why it’s so important to think about gender when responding to epidemics and pandemics.

Contributor(s): Clare Wenham | A special bite-sized episode of LSE IQ asks, “What does gender have to do with pandemics?” Cholera, Ebola, Influenza, MERS, SARs, Smallpox, Yellow fever, Zika and of course novel Coronavirus – these are just some of the pandemic, epidemic diseases listed by the World Health Organisation. And until a few months ago, many of us – particularly in the West – had remained comfortably unaffected by these terrible diseases. Yet today it seems dreadfully routine to consume daily infection rates and sobering death tolls. And while the exact figures are unclear – men seem to be dying at a far higher rate. So it might be strange to be focus on women at a time like this. But in this episode Sue Windebank speaks to Dr Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE about why it’s so important to think about gender when responding to epidemics and pandemics.

Contributor(s): Bob Ward, Svenja Surminski, Ivan, XR | This month’s episode of the LSE IQ podcast asks if the climate crisis can be averted. If you can, cast your mind back a few months. Can you remember a time when toilet roll wasn’t a prized possession? Or when going out meant more than a trip to the supermarket? You may recall talk of another crisis, one that threatened millions of lives and livelihoods. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this episode turns its attention back to this other threat to our world: climate change. One of the few positives to emerge from the pandemic is a dramatic decline in greenhouse gas emissions. Both China and Europe are forecast to emit 25% less greenhouse gases in 2020 and in New York carbon monoxide levels have already dropped by 50%. As city smogs lift, fewer people are predicted to suffer strokes, or contract heart disease and lung cancer. While this drop will only be temporary, does the pandemic point to how bold action on the climate is possible? Or is it inevitable that hundreds of millions of people face hunger, drought and flooding? In this episode we talk to Ivan, a member of Extinction Rebellion, Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE, and Svenja Surminski, Head of Adaptation Research at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE.

Contributor(s): Bob Ward, Svenja Surminski, Ivan, XR | This month’s episode of the LSE IQ podcast asks if the climate crisis can be averted. If you can, cast your mind back a few months. Can you remember a time when toilet roll wasn’t a prized possession? Or when going out meant more than a trip to the supermarket? You may recall talk of another crisis, one that threatened millions of lives and livelihoods. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this episode turns its attention back to this other threat to our world: climate change. One of the few positives to emerge from the pandemic is a dramatic decline in greenhouse gas emissions. Both China and Europe are forecast to emit 25% less greenhouse gases in 2020 and in New York carbon monoxide levels have already dropped by 50%. As city smogs lift, fewer people are predicted to suffer strokes, or contract heart disease and lung cancer. While this drop will only be temporary, does the pandemic point to how bold action on the climate is possible? Or is it inevitable that hundreds of millions of people face hunger, drought and flooding? In this episode we talk to Ivan, a member of Extinction Rebellion, Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE, and Svenja Surminski, Head of Adaptation Research at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE.

Contributor(s): Michael Muthukrishna, Sandra Sequeira, Jonathan Weigel | Welcome to LSE IQ, the award-winning podcast where we ask social scientists and other experts to answer one intelligent question. In this episode Jess Winterstein asks, "Is corruption inevitable?" Bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism – corruption comes in many forms, with varying levels of legality, it costs countries trillions of dollars per year and causes great damage to a nation’s economic prosperity and reputation. Yet despite regular pledges of governments around the world to combat it, corruption still flourishes. Exploring the question, ‘Is corruption inevitable?’, Jess Winterstein talks to Michael Muthukrishna, Sandra Sequeira and Jonathan Weigel Corruption, Cooperation, and the Evolution of Prosocial Institutions by Michael Muthukrishna http://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/publications/PDFs/Muthukrishna-Corruption-Cooperation-Prosocial-Institutions.pdf

Corrupting cooperation and how anti-corruption strategies may backfire by Michael Muthukrishna, Patrick Francois, Shayan Pourahmadi and Joseph Henrich http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/83544/1/Muthukrishna_Corrupting%20cooperation%20and%20how_2018.pdf An empirical study of corruption in Ports by Sandra Sequeira and Simeon Djankov, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/41301/ The Supply of Bribes: Evidence from Roadway Tolls in the D.R. Congo by Otis Reid and Jonathan Weigel https://jonathanweigel.com/jwresearch/motos

Contributor(s): Michael Muthukrishna, Sandra Sequeira, Jonathan Weigel | Welcome to LSE IQ, the award-winning podcast where we ask social scientists and other experts to answer one intelligent question. In this episode Jess Winterstein asks, "Is corruption inevitable?" Bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism – corruption comes in many forms, with varying levels of legality, it costs countries trillions of dollars per year and causes great damage to a nation’s economic prosperity and reputation. Yet despite regular pledges of governments around the world to combat it, corruption still flourishes. Exploring the question, ‘Is corruption inevitable?’, Jess Winterstein talks to Michael Muthukrishna, Sandra Sequeira and Jonathan Weigel Corruption, Cooperation, and the Evolution of Prosocial Institutions by Michael Muthukrishna http://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/publications/PDFs/Muthukrishna-Corruption-Cooperation-Prosocial-Institutions.pdf

Corrupting cooperation and how anti-corruption strategies may backfire by Michael Muthukrishna, Patrick Francois, Shayan Pourahmadi and Joseph Henrich http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/83544/1/Muthukrishna_Corrupting%20cooperation%20and%20how_2018.pdf An empirical study of corruption in Ports by Sandra Sequeira and Simeon Djankov, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/41301/ The Supply of Bribes: Evidence from Roadway Tolls in the D.R. Congo by Otis Reid and Jonathan Weigel https://jonathanweigel.com/jwresearch/motos