Michelle L. Bell

Michelle Bell

Website:

Research Group Website
Mary E. Pinchot Professor of the Environment, Environmental Health and Chemical & Environmental Engineering
Room / Office: Kroon 215
Office Address:
205 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 208286
New Haven, CT 06520
Phone: (203) 432-9869
Fax: (203) 432-3817
Email: michelle.bell@yale.edu
Degrees:

Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University

Interests:

Professor Bell aims to combine her environmental engineering and public health background to examine the air pollution system from emissions to their health consequences.
 
Research interests include the statistical analysis of the health impacts of air pollution episodes, meteorological and air quality modeling, and policy implications. The overall aim of her work is to answer scientific questions regarding how air pollution affects health and to perform policy-relevant research that contributes to well-informed decision-making and to greater public understanding of environmental health hazards.
 
She has led national studies of the links between air pollution and risk of hospitalizations and mortality. Other work includes estimating the exposure-response curve between concentrations and health risks and exploring whether heterogeneity in pollution-health estimates can be explained by differences in socio-economic characteristics. Additional recent and ongoing projects include a study of heat-related mortality in Latin American cities, the impacts of air pollution on low birth weight in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the relationships between the chemical composition of particulate matter and health. Dr. Bell is also interested in the health impacts of climate change; in particular the potential changes in air pollution due to climatic change and the subsequent health impacts. Current and recent research projects are based in the United States, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan.
 

Selected Awards & Honors:

  • NIH Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award  (2006)
  • Health Effects Institute Walter A. Rosenblith Young Investigator Award (2004)

Selected Publications:

  • Peng RD, ML Bell. In press. Spatial misalignment in time series analyses of air pollution and health data. Accepted for Biostatistics.
  • Bell ML, RD Peng, F Dominici, JM Samet. 2009. Emergency hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases and ambient levels of carbon monoxide: results for 126 U.S. urban counties, 1999-2005. Circulation 120(11), p. 949-955.
  • Bell ML, K Ebisu, RD Peng, JM Samet, F Dominici. 2009. Hospital admissions and chemical composition of fine particle air pollution. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 179(2), p. 1115-1120.
  • Anderson GB, ML Bell. 2009. Weather-related mortality: a study of how heat, cold, and heat waves affect mortality in the United States. Epidemiology 20(2), p. 205-213.
  • Bell ML, K Ebisu, RD Peng, J Walker, JM Samet, SL Zeger, F Dominici. 2008. Seasonal and regional short-term effects of fine particles on hospital admissions in 202 U.S. counties, 1999-2005. American Journal of Epidemiology 168(1), p. 1301-1310.
  • Peng RD, HH Chang, ML Bell, A McDermott, SL Zeger, JM Samet, F Dominici. 2008. Coarse particulate matter air pollution and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases among Medicare patients.Journal of the American Medical Association 299(18), p. 2172-2179.
  • Bell ML, K Ebisu, K Belanger. 2007. Ambient Air Pollution and Low Birth Weight in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Environmental Health Perspectives 115(7), p. 1118-1125
  • Bell ML, R Goldberg, C Hogrefe, PL Kinney, K Knowlton, B Lynn, J Rosenthal, C Rosenzweig, J Patz. 2007. Climate change, ambient ozone, and health in 50 U.S. cities. Climatic Change 82(1-2), p. 61-76.
  • Bell ML, A McDermott, SL Zeger, JM Samet, F Dominici. 2004. Ozone and mortality in 95 U.S. urban communities, 1987-2000. Journal of the American Medical Association 292, p. 2372-2378.