About

Gary Adamkiewicz is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research is motivated by a desire to alleviate environmental health disparities, focusing on understanding how housing, communities, and neighborhoods influence individual health. He investigates the specific causal pathways that lead to health-relevant exposures and aims to develop interventions to mitigate these risks, especially in low-income communities. His work includes examining exposures to secondhand smoke, pesticides, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, nitrogen dioxide, mold, and allergens, often within public housing developments. Adamkiewicz emphasizes the importance of understanding the co-existence of multiple exposures and their cumulative risks, as well as how environmental risks interact with other factors like psychosocial influences and access to care. He is actively involved in translating research into public health actions, collaborating with policymakers and practitioners to implement policies such as pest-control practices, smoking bans, and the design of healthy, energy-efficient housing. Additionally, he co-leads the Health and Places Initiative, which addresses urbanization challenges in China, and explores sustainable urban development worldwide. His interests also extend to food systems, examining the implications of food choices on health, environment, and climate change, and he co-instructs a course on food and sustainability.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Political Science
• Nursing
• Internal medicine
• Biology
• Organic chemistry
• Psychology
• Audiology
• Public relations
• Surgery
• Environmental science
• Acoustics
• Environmental chemistry
• Geography
• Immunology
• Intensive care medicine
• Chemistry
• Ecology
• Food science
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Tenant Reported Triggers are Associated with Pediatric Asthma Emergency Department Visits

  Academic Pediatrics · 2026-03-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Characteristics of ‘Early Adopters' of Water Treatment Capacity Needed to Remove PFAS and other Emerging Contaminants in the United States"

  2026-01-22

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• Housing Disorder and Adult Physical Health Outcomes Across Age Gradients: A Longitudinal Panel Analysis

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Communities across the U.S. face growing challenges in meeting the housing needs of Americans, with limited supply and high costs leading many to live in unsuitable and poorly kept housing contexts (Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2024). These challenges are particularly acute among low-income households, and among younger and older adults, who have more limited social and economic resources (Airgood-Obrycki et al., 2024). Indeed, recent national data from the American Housing Survey indicate that 12% of the low-income renter households reside in housing of substandard quality, experiencing physical problems such as lack of heat or hot water, water leaks and mold, or rodent infestations (Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2024), with residents of public housing, which has faced decades of underinvestment, facing particular challenges. Housing is a central social determinant of health, with unaffordable, poor-quality, and unstable housing negatively associated with a range of health and wellbeing outcomes (D'Alessandro & Appollini, 2020; Howden-Chapman et al., 2023; Rolfe et al., 2020; Swope & Hernández, 2019). Yet prior work on housing quality often focused on specific aspects of housing disorder and on narrow aspects of health (Krieger & Higgins, 2002) or dichotomized or categorized composites of housing disorder (Adamkiewicz et al., 2014; Troxel et al., 2020), and have suffer from concerns over unmeasured heterogeneity bias. To address these limitations, we will examine both a broad array of housing disorder features as well as a range of general, chronic, and behavioral aspects of physical health in a sample of adults sharing a single neighborhood context and controlled housing affordability, and will address variation over age strata.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Characteristics of ‘early adopters’ of water treatment capacity needed to remove PFAS and other emerging contaminants in the United States

  Environmental Science Processes & Impacts · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  system sizes, and source water types. The proportion of American Indian and Alaskan Native residents was also inversely associated with adoption of the treatment technologies for certain groups of CWS. These results suggest managerial and financial barriers to removal of high levels of emerging contaminants in drinking water may be most pronounced for some small CWS and those serving selected historically marginalized communities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Clean beauty gentrification: The role of historic and contemporary resource allocation practices on hair product safety in Boston, MA

  Environmental Epidemiology · 2026-01-13

  articleOpen access

  Background: Personal care products are a well-documented source of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Differences in exposure to EDCs are reported, with Black women more commonly using products, such as hair products, containing EDCs. Our previous work identified differences in access to safer hair products between neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts; however, limited research has explored what may be driving these differences. Redlining and gentrification are two resource allocation practices that may impact neighborhood-level access to health-promoting services and goods, including access to safer hair products. Objective: We examined if there is an association between historic and contemporary practices related to resource allocation (i.e., historic redlining and gentrification) with hair product safety (i.e., containing EDCs and other chemicals of concern) among the neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts. Methods: We randomly selected and visited 117 stores in Boston to collect data on hair product availability and safety. We used the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) Skin Deep database to evaluate hair product safety through hazard categories (low, moderate, or high). We collected data on historic and contemporary factors at the census tract level (redlining and gentrification). The associations between the historic and contemporary factors and EWG hazard categories were examined using multinomial logistic regressions. Results: A total of 39,421 hair products were cataloged in Boston, Massachusetts. Stores in previously Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) graded C and D-not gentrified areas had increased access to high-hazard hair products (risk ratio [RR] HOLC C = 1.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.9, 1.4, RR HOLC D = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.1, 1.7). Decreased access to low-hazard hair products was reported among stores in HOLC D-gentrified or intensely gentrified (RR = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.5, 1.1), HOLC C-not gentrified (RR = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.5, 1.0), and HOLC D-not gentrified areas (RR = 0.5; 95% CI = 0.4, 0.8). Discussion: Differences in access to safer hair products were reported when examining the impacts of both redlining and gentrification. Our findings present evidence of the role of historic and contemporary resource allocation practices on current-day neighborhood-level safer hair product accessibility, which may have potential downstream health consequences.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication Data for: Characteristics of 'Early Adopters' of Water Treatment Capacity Needed to Remove PFAS and other Emerging Contaminants in the United States

  Open MIND · 2026-02-19

  dataset

  This repository holds replication datasets for the study titled, "Characteristics of 'Early Adopters' of Water Treatment Capacity Needed to Remove PFAS and other Emerging Contaminants in the United States." Additional information is available in the readme file for download.

  DOI

• In-unit particulate matter (PM2.5) in a public housing complex and the importance of tobacco and cannabis as indoor pollutants

  Indoor Environments · 2026-02-03

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) is a ubiquitous air pollutant with known socioeconomic disparities in exposure related to both ambient and indoor sources. Understanding how common indoor behaviors such as smoking, cooking, candle or incense burning, and air freshener use contribute to indoor PM 2.5 exposure in public housing can inform interventions to protect residents’ health. PM 2.5 data were collected via PurpleAir monitors for one week within 138 units of a public housing development in New England, United States and corrected via an additive relative humidity model. Study participants completed a pre-monitoring survey and a post-monitoring survey of in-unit PM 2.5 -related behaviors. Participants’ weekly average in-unit PM 2.5 levels were variable, ranging from 3.6 µg/m 3 to 142.0 µg/m 3 , with a mean of 19.7 µg/m 3 . Two-thirds (65.9%) of households’ average levels exceeded the EPA annual outdoor standard of 9 µg/m 3 , a heuristic reference given the lack of national indoor guidelines. A multivariable model predicting unit-level average PM 2.5 based on resident behaviors found significant associations between elevated PM 2.5 and past-week tobacco smoking (121% higher PM 2.5 ), weekly or more cannabis use (56% higher), and living in an apartment building rather than a townhome (26% higher). Cannabis use, which is studied here for the first time in an uncontrolled residential setting, may represent an underappreciated risk factor for exposure. Interventions directed at mitigating indoor smoking of both tobacco and cannabis may be effective at reducing average in-unit PM 2.5 exposure in multifamily housing, as compared to combatting other known indoor sources of PM 2.5 . • Weekly PM 2.5 concentration varied between 138 public housing units with a mean of 19.7 µg/m³ • Two thirds of households’ PM 2.5 exposure exceeded the EPA annual outdoor standard of 9 µg/m³ • Tobacco smoking significantly associated with a 121% increase in average PM 2.5 after adjustment • Cannabis use significantly associated with a 59% increase in average PM 2.5 after adjustment

  PublisherDOI

• Associations between reservoir bedroom dust allergen levels and sleep symptoms in school-age children

  Sleep Health · 2025-11-05

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: Exposure to allergens may trigger inflammatory pathways contributing to poor sleep. We investigated the associations between indoor allergen concentrations with multiple sleep dimensions in children. METHODS: Bedroom dust aeroallergens were collected in participants' homes. The outcomes were caregiver-reported sleep-related daytime impairment and sleep disturbance (pediatric PROMIS instruments), sleep-disordered breathing (SDB; apnea-hypopnea index or oxygen desaturation index >5), and actigraphy-based short sleep (<8 hours) duration and poor sleep continuity (sleep fragmentation index > 75th percentile). Logistic regression was used to examine associations between aeroallergens (>50% detectable levels) and sleep outcomes, adjusting for potential confounders (i.e., sociodemographic, environmental, and health-related). RESULTS: The sample included an urban cohort of 256 children (41% Hispanic, 29% Black; 43% female) aged 6-12 years. Mouse (Mus m 1), cat (Fel d 1), and dog (Can f 1) allergens were detected in 81%, 72%, and 53% of households, respectively. Elevated mouse allergen exposure (>0.55 μg/g-75th percentile) was associated with a 2.6-fold (95% CI: 1.34, 5.03) increased odds for sleep-related daytime impairment (PROMIS T-score > 55) after adjusting for demographic factors. This association persisted after further adjusting for inflammatory-related health factors (asthma, allergic rhinitis, obesity, and environmental tobacco smoke), neighborhood disadvantage, and SDB. There was attenuation of this association with poor sleep consolidation. Associations were not observed for other allergens or other sleep outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to elevated mouse dust was associated with increased sleep-related daytime impairment symptoms. The role of household pest exposure as a potentially modifiable target for improving sleep health should be further studied.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impact of urban residential environment and biological agents on childhood allergic diseases: Insights from the Greater Taipei area

  International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health · 2025-07-24 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Pediatric allergic diseases pose a significant global public health concern, with environmental factors playing a crucial role in their development. Investigating these determinants, particularly during early childhood, is crucial. This study, part of the Longitudinal Examination Across Prenatal and Postnatal Health in Taiwan (LEAPP-HIT) project, focused on children under 5 years old in the Greater Taipei Area. We collected data on household environments, and children's medical histories related to allergic diseases using standardized questionnaires. Additionally, we examined outdoor factors such as air pollution, land use, and points of interest. Indoor environmental sampling assessed concentrations of air pollutants, microbes, and allergens. Using logistic regression, we analyzed the relationships between indoor and outdoor environmental factors and allergic diseases in 136 children. Our findings revealed that the acquisition of new furniture and less frequent household cleaning were positively associated with allergic rhinitis and eczema, respectively. Using carpets, moldy odors in bedrooms, and Der f 1 concentrations in bed dust were significantly correlated with an increased risk of allergic conjunctivitis. Furthermore, exposure to ambient particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤10μm and the presence of certain points of interest (e.g., night markets and restaurants) significantly impacted the occurrence of allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and eczema. These results underscore the complexity of allergic disease development in children and highlight the importance of considering both clean home environments and ambient environmental characteristics when providing public health guidance to families affected by allergic diseases.

  PublisherDOI

• Novel biomarkers to assess mold exposure among children with asthma

  Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · 2025-08-01

  article

  BACKGROUND: Household mold is a major problem in communities which face natural disasters such as hurricanes or flooding, and in homes with other sources of significant water intrusion; a biomarker for exposure to indoor mold could support public health investigations. METHODS: We analyzed serum from 132 children with asthma living in government-subsidized housing for six microbial volatile organic compounds (2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 2-heptanone, 2-hexanone, 3-methylfuran, 3-octanone, and geosmin) using GC-MS. Fewer than 10% of the samples for three compounds (2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 2-heptanone, and 2-hexanone) were quantified below the limit of detection. Associations between mold/water damage variables and microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) were assessed via regression analyses, adjusting for urinary cotinine and self-reported home characteristics. RESULTS: Children with household mold (assessed by occupant report of visual mold, mold odor, or water damage) had 32% higher serum concentrations of 2-hexanone than those living in homes without reported mold or water damage. We investigated indoor tobacco use via urinary cotinine analysis of a "first morning void spot sample" (FMV) and found that children with higher urinary cotinine had significantly higher serum 2-ethyl-1-hexanol. We found that children in homes where residents reported tobacco smoking indoors had significantly higher serum 2-ethyl-1-hexanol compared with those without reported household smoke exposure. Tobacco smoke, indoor painting, gas stoves, and carpets were not confounders in the relationship between mVOCs and mold/water damage variables. CONCLUSION: 2-hexanone, along with an index variable which included all detectable mVOCs in our panel, are promising biomarkers of recent mold exposure that could be used in concert with other detection methods.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01ES017514

  NIH · $2.8M · 2016

• Geographic & Contextual Measures Core

  NIH · $41.7M · 1997–2026

• NIH Grant U01EH000991

  NIH · $375k · 2015

• Disparities in Exposure and Health Effects of Multiple Environmental Stressors Across the Life Course

  NIH · $6.5M · 2015–2021

Frequent coauthors

• MyDzung T. Chu

  Tufts Medical Center

  59 shared

• Ami R. Zota

  Columbia University

  58 shared

• John D. Spengler

  Harvard University

  57 shared

• Jaime E. Hart

  Harvard University

  55 shared

• Judith Rodrıguez

  Harvard University

  44 shared

• Andrew Fenelon

  Twin Cities Orthopedics

  39 shared

• Emily H. Sparer

  Massachusetts Department of Public Health

  36 shared

• Madeleine R. Bartzak

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  36 shared