Malta Conference: The mounting health impacts of urbanisation and how to adjust to a changing environment

Professor Jonathan Grigg, Queen Mary University of London, at the conference "The Environmental Health Challenges of Urbanisation"

Organised in collaboration with the Gozo Regional Development Authority, the day conference focussed on four key pillars: identifying and outlining key environmental factors, specifying their impact on our health, understanding the science behind it, and highlighting ways to design a healthier now.  

Through engaging talks, interactive sessions, and panel discussions, the participants shed light on the various challenges faced by urban areas - including waste management, access to green spaces, noise pollution and air pollution. 

Our Keynote speaker, Professor Jonathan Grigg, Professor of Paediatric Respiratory and Environmental Medicine at the Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, said: 

“Air pollution is one of the greatest threats to children’s respiratory health. One of its most important components is tiny particles (particulate matter; PM). We now realise that inhaled PM not only has short term effects, such as triggering asthma, but major long-term effects such as reduced lung growth, with implications for health across the life course. Multidisciplinary conferences like this one are crucial to taking on the mounting health impacts and challenges created by urbanisation, establishing a unified approach.” 

In the panel discussion 'Urban design for better health' participants explored how urban planning in its traditional form affects our physical and mental health and exchanged ideas for new, people-centred solutions.  

Dr John Paul Cauchi, Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Queen Mary University of London, Malta Campus, said: 

“Over the past decades, we have designed cities and urban spaces with the intention to maximise profits and to accommodate cars, whilst forgetting about people and their wellbeing. In the process, we have created polluted, obesogenic environments and our mental wellbeing has declined significantly. We cannot solve the urban health problems of our times by first causing harm, and then trying to fix it – we need people- and planet-centred designs of our urban spaces.” 

Interested in learning more about the interlinks between health and the environment?
Sign up for Queen Mary’s 3 Day Short Course “Biomedical Horizons: Exploring the Interplay between Environment and Health” in Autumn 2024. The course is hosted in person at our Malta Campus and available by Distance Learning. Exact dates are yet to be confirmed.