About

Misbath Daouda is an Assistant Professor of Health Equity and Environmental Justice in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the health equity implications of climate mitigation strategies in the US and West Africa. Using environmental epidemiology, exposure modeling, and qualitative methods, she aims to generate community-driven evidence that can support the centering of equity in energy policy and initiatives to achieve just transitions. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she obtained her MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Her research interests include climate and health equity, just energy transitions and related interventions, domestic and international dimensions of environmental justice, and maternal and child health.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Environmental science
• Social Science
• Sociology
• Biology
• Ecology
• Environmental planning
• Law
• Gerontology
• Environmental protection
• Pathology
• Geography
• Psychology
• Demography

Selected publications

• A cross-sectional study characterizing the prevalence of utility service outages across demographic characteristics and health correlates in New York City

  Environmental Epidemiology · 2025-01-09 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Utility services for electricity, gas, heat, and hot water are necessities for everyday activities (e.g., lighting, cooking, and thermal safety). Utility outages can threaten health; however, information is limited on the prevalence of electricity, gas, heat, and hot water outages in representative studies. We characterized infrastructure-related electricity, gas, heat, and hot water outages in New York City (NYC) and within subgroups. Methods: Using a representative 2022 survey of NYC adults (18+), we assessed the prevalence for 6+ hour utility outages and compared across building, demographic, and health subgroups. Building characteristics included age, number of floors, rental type, and owner/rental status. Demographics included household poverty, neighborhood poverty, and race/ethnicity. For health, we focused on cognitive impairment, electricity-dependent medical equipment use, and mental health conditions. Results: Outages impacted 20% of NYC residents. Heat outages were nearly 3× and 2× more common in mid-rise and high-rise buildings respectively, vs. low-rise buildings. Similarly, hot water outages were 5× and over 6× more prevalent in mid-rise and high-rise residences. Renters faced 2× more heat and hot water outages compared with owners. Compared with low-poverty households, high-poverty households faced 2× more hot water outages. Residents with mental health conditions experienced more electricity (11% vs. 5%), heat (15% vs. 7%), and hot water (16% vs. 8%) outages compared with those without. Conclusions: NYC utility outage prevalence varied by type with heat and hot water being most common. Disparities across building, sociodemographic, and health characteristics were also larger and more frequent for heat and hot water outages.

  PublisherDOI

• Factors associated with the use of liquefied petroleum gas in Ghana vary at different stages of transition

  Nature Energy · 2024-02-22 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Clean-cooking transitions have the potential to generate large public health, environmental and societal gains for 2.6 billion people in the Global South. Here we use data from Ghana’s largest household energy survey ( n = 7,389) to provide two main insights. First, regression analysis of 13 commonly cited socio-economic and demographic determinants of household fuel use indicates remarkably different relationships with clean-fuel use at different stages of the transition process. We propose a stage-based transition framework that can help inform the rollout of clean-cooking interventions. Second, we identify factors that are associated with the exclusive use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) using a statistically powered sample of exclusive LPG users ( n = 693). We show that, all else equal, increases in wealth and urbanicity are not—contrary to conventional wisdom—associated with a transition from primary to exclusive LPG use. Whereas further research is needed to determine causality, our findings highlight the potential for more careful measurement, isolating each stage of the clean-cooking transition, to inform new insights and policy opportunities.

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• A history of environmental injustice: segregation and air pollution in 1940 and 2010 in the United States

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2024-07-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• An environmental justice analysis of air pollution emissions in the United States from 1970 to 2010

  Nature Communications · 2024 · 69 citations

  • Political Science
  • Environmental science
  • Environmental health

  ]) in the contiguous United States during the 40 years following the Clean Air Act (CAA) enactment (1970-2010). We calculate relative emission changes and examine the differential changes given county demographics using hierarchical nested models. The results show racial/ethnic disparities, particularly in the industry and energy generation source sectors. We also find that median family income is a driver of variation in relative emissions changes in all sectors-counties with median family income >$75 K vs. less generally experience larger relative declines in industry, energy, transportation, residential, and commercial-related emissions. Emissions from most air pollution source sectors have, on a national level, decreased following the United States CAA. In this work, we show that the relative reductions in emissions varied across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

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• Readiness for a clean energy future: Prevalence, perceptions, and barriers to adoption of electric stoves and solar panels in New York city

  Energy Policy · 2024-09-05 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Adoption of electric stoves and rooftop solar can reduce fossil-fuel reliance and improve health by decreasing indoor air pollution and alleviating energy insecurity. This study assessed prevalence and perceptions of these clean-energy technologies to increase adoption in New York City (NYC). A representative survey of 1950 NYC adults was conducted from February 28 to April 1, 2022. Fourteen percent of people had an electric stove; 86% had gas stoves. Black, Latino/a, and lower-income residents were more likely to have electric stoves than White and higher-income residents. Only 14% of residents were interested in switching from gas to electric stoves. Of the 71% with gas stoves uninterested in switching, nearly half (45%) preferred gas cooking, particularly among White and higher-income residents, indicating a large opportunity to shift preferences. About 5% used solar for their home or building; another 77% were interested in solar. Of the 18% uninterested in solar, reasons included lack of agency, confusion about operation, and costs. Education about health and cost benefits, induction technology, how to transition, available subsidies, and other efforts to reduce adoption barriers can support clean technology uptake. Residential clean energy metrics should be tracked regularly to ensure that technology adoption proceeds equitably. • A local analysis reveals low use of electric stoves and residential solar. • Solar interest was high; desire to transition away from gas cooking was low. • Barriers and preferences differed by socioeconomic status. • Gaps in access and interest indicate opportunities to increase technology adoption. • Local clean-energy metrics should be tracked to ensure an equitable transition.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond air pollution: a national assessment of cooking-related burns in Ghana

  Injury Prevention · 2024-08-06 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  INTRODUCTION: Household energy transitions have the potential to reduce the burden of several health outcomes but have narrowly focused on those mediated by reduced exposure to air pollution, despite concerns about the burden of injury outcomes. Here, we aimed to describe the country-level incidence of severe cooking-related burns in Ghana and identify household-level risk factors for adults and children. METHODS: We conducted a national household energy use survey including 7389 households across 370 enumeration areas in Ghana in 2020. In each household, a pretested version of the Clean Cooking Alliance Burns Surveillance Module was administered to the primary cook. We computed incidence rates of severe cooking-related burns and conducted bivariate logistic regression to identify potential risk factors. RESULTS: We documented 129 severe cooking-related burns that had occurred in the previous year. The incidence rate (95% CI) of cooking-related burns among working-age females was 17 (13 to 21) per 1000 person-years or 8.5 times higher than that of working-age males. Among adults, the odds of experiencing a cooking-related burn were 2.29 (95% CI 1.02 to 5.14) and 2.40 (95% CI 1.04 to 5.55) times higher among primary wood and charcoal users respectively compared with primary liquified petroleum gas users. No child burns were documented in households where liquified petroleum gas was primarily used. CONCLUSION: Using a nationally representative sample, we found that solid fuel use doubled the odds of cooking-related burns compared with liquified petroleum gas. Ghana's efforts to expand access to liquified petroleum gas should focus on safe use.

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• Out of Gas, In with Justice: Findings from a gas-to-induction pilot in low-income housing in NYC

  Energy Research & Social Science · 2024-07-13 · 11 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Prenatal Household Air Pollution Exposure and Childhood Blood Pressure in Rural Ghana

  Environmental Health Perspectives · 2024-03-01 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  BACKGROUND: The association between prenatal household air pollution (HAP) exposure and childhood blood pressure (BP) is unknown. OBJECTIVE: ) first-year-of-life HAP exposure with BP at 4 years of age and, separately, whether a stove intervention delivered prenatally and continued through the first year of life could improve BP at 4 years of age. METHODS: -scores. Sex-specific effects were considered. RESULTS: -scores. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that prenatal and first-year-of-life HAP exposure are associated with child BP and support the need for reductions in exposure to HAP, with interventions such as cleaner cooking beginning in pregnancy. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13225.

  PublisherDOI

• Correspondence on “Home is Where the Pipeline Ends: Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds Present in Natural Gas at the Point of the Residential End User”

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2023-01-19 · 2 citations

  letterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVCorrespondence/Rebut...Correspondence/RebuttalNEXTCorrespondence on "Home is Where the Pipeline Ends: Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds Present in Natural Gas at the Point of the Residential End User"Misbath Daouda*Misbath DaoudaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York 10032, United States*[email protected]More by Misbath Daoudahttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2441-4227, Annie CarforoAnnie CarforoWE ACT for Environmental Justice, New York, New York 10031, United StatesMore by Annie Carforo, Darby JackDarby JackDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York 10032, United StatesMore by Darby Jack, and Diana HernándezDiana HernándezDepartment of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York 10032, United StatesMore by Diana HernándezCite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, 57, 4, 1848–1849Publication Date (Web):January 19, 2023Publication History Received13 December 2022Published online19 January 2023Published inissue 31 January 2023https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09423https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c09423article-commentaryACS PublicationsCopyright © 2023 American Chemical Society. This publication is available under these Terms of Use. Request reuse permissions This publication is free to access through this site. Learn MoreArticle Views1158Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail PDF (954 KB) Get e-AlertscloseSUBJECTS:Energy,Environmental chemistry,Environmental pollution,Natural resources,Volatile organic compounds Get e-Alerts

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• Methods in Public Health Environmental Justice Research: a Scoping Review from 2018 to 2021

  Current Environmental Health Reports · 2023 · 51 citations

  • Social Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The volume of public health environmental justice (EJ) research produced by academic institutions increased through 2022. However, the methods used for evaluating EJ in exposure science and epidemiologic studies have not been catalogued. Here, we completed a scoping review of EJ studies published in 19 environmental science and epidemiologic journals from 2018 to 2021 to summarize research types, frameworks, and methods. RECENT FINDINGS: We identified 402 articles that included populations with health disparities as a part of EJ research question and met other inclusion criteria. Most studies (60%) evaluated EJ questions related to socioeconomic status (SES) or race/ethnicity. EJ studies took place in 69 countries, led by the US (n = 246 [61%]). Only 50% of studies explicitly described a theoretical EJ framework in the background, methods, or discussion and just 10% explicitly stated a framework in all three sections. Among exposure studies, the most common area-level exposure was air pollution (40%), whereas chemicals predominated personal exposure studies (35%). Overall, the most common method used for exposure-only EJ analyses was main effect regression modeling (50%); for epidemiologic studies the most common method was effect modification (58%), where an analysis evaluated a health disparity variable as an effect modifier. Based on the results of this scoping review, current methods in public health EJ studies could be bolstered by integrating expertise from other fields (e.g., sociology), conducting community-based participatory research and intervention studies, and using more rigorous, theory-based, and solution-oriented statistical research methods.

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Frequent coauthors

• Kwaku Poku Asante

  Ghana Health Service

  17 shared

• Theresa Tawiah

  Ghana Health Service

  12 shared

• Darby Jack

  11 shared

• Sulemana Watara Abubakari

  Kintampo Health Research Centre

  9 shared

• Steven N. Chillrud

  9 shared

• Joan A. Casey

  Columbia University

  9 shared

• Seyram Kaali

  Kintampo Health Research Centre

  9 shared

• Mohammed Mujtaba

  Kintampo Health Research Centre

  8 shared