According to the World Health Organization, 25% of total global mortality is due to environmental hazards, and better environmental management could prevent 13 million deaths each year, 4 million in children alone. Importantly, many environmentally related deaths and diseases are preventable given the knowledge and resources needed to effect change. Geographers at the University of Iowa are actively engaged in teaching and research that leads to a better understanding of the complex relationships that exist among health, populations, and the environments they live in. 

Recent topics of research in health geography at the UI:

• The relation between cancer and access to health care in Iowa
• Advanced techniques for the visualization and analysis of spatio-temporal patterns of health and the environmental factors that affect health.
• The health effects of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa
• Population and environmental drivers of influenza in Asia
• Water interactions and diarrheal disease in rural Bangladesh