Research is divided into Two overlapping and complimentary areas: Environment-oriented areas, which follow the tradition of preventive medicine with a focus on causal determinants; outcome-oriented areas, which are based on clinical medicine and epidemiology; specific staff research interests include: outdoor air pollution; indoor air pollution; environmental burden and pathways; occupational lung disease; occupational exposure assessment; methods for evaluating exposure to workplace hazards and effectiveness of control measures; risk assessment methodology for human health integrating exposures from occupational and environmental sources; use of bio-engineering techniques in occupational setting for assessing effectiveness of dermal protection methods; Nepali risk assessment methods for metals; occupational epidemiology: cohort, case-control, cross-sectional and nested case-control study designs; role of causal effects, bias, confounding and chance in epidemiological findings; measure of effect and causal inference; the identification and quantification of occupational cancer hazards.
Identifying, characterising and projecting the population health impacts of human-induced climate change. This research is done at local, national, regional and global scales. Particular attention is paid to the risks and adaptive options in high-vulnerability populations and groups, nationally and internationally.
Studying the phenomena and processes relating to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, especially those associated with climatic and environmental changes, ubanisation and population density and mobility, and the circumstances of poverty (including under-nutrition and immune impairment).
Developing concepts and methods to study and understand, within a broad socio-ecological context, the health impacts of climate change and other global (or large-scale, transboundary) environmental changes, and the (interim) adaptive strategies neede to reduce risks.
Facilitating research approaches to the study of the determinants of environmental ‘sustainability’ — urban settlements, food production, consumption patterns, transport, energy use and impacts on the wider environment and climate. What is their present and probable future impact on human health?
Seeking insight into how human exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) affects human biology, particularly immune system function and the consequences for risks of immune-related disorders such as multiple sclerosis.