Frederica P Perera
Biographic Data
| ID | 3455855 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frederica P Perera |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frederica P |
| FAMILY NAME | Perera |
| SIGNATURE | PERERA F P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Columbia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1364-9250 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Combined prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and maternal distress is associated with childhood irritability
Background: Childhood irritability is a transdiagnostic risk marker of neurodevelopmental problems. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and psychosocial stressors have been independently associated with altered emotional and behavioral symptoms akin to irritability, but the joint effects of PAHs and maternal psychological distress on trajectories of irritability symptoms have not been directly examined. We hypothesized that combined exposure …
Health benefits to the pediatric population from reduction of ambient particulate matter in Krakow, Poland
There have been few assessments of the health benefits to children of policies aimed at curbing fossil fuel-related air pollution. This has resulted in a lack of awareness regarding their positive impact on the health of this vulnerable population. We estimated the pediatric health benefits of policies targeting coal burning in one of Europe’s most polluted cities, Kraków, Poland. We combined available data on child health outcomes, related conce…
Children’s health impacts from a proposed decarbonization policy in the transportation sector in the Eastern United States
Health impact assessments have estimated substantial health co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies due to reductions in air pollution in the US; however, few studies have considered children’s health impacts and related equity implications. We estimated the potential health co-benefits to children related to improved air quality associated with various emissions cap and investment scenarios for the transportation sector in the Northe…
Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with altered brain structure, function, and metabolism in childhood
Background Prenatal exposure to air pollution disrupts cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development. The brain disturbances associated with prenatal air pollution are largely unknown. Methods In this prospective cohort study, we estimated prenatal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and then assessed their associations with measures of brain anatomy, tissue microstructure, neurometabolite…
Understanding the Role of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Stress in the Association between Proximity to the World Trade Center Disaster and Birth Outcomes
Fetal growth is affected by exposure to both prenatal stress and environmental contaminants. The attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) resulted in exposure to chemicals and psychological stress amongst New York City residents. We measured prenatal maternal stress and exposure to persistent organic pollutants (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs)) in 108 participants from a Colu…
Prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons modifies the effects of early life stress on attention and Thought Problems in late childhood
BACKGROUND: Risk for childhood psychopathology is complex and multifactorial, implicating direct and interacting effects of familial and environmental factors. The role of environmental neurotoxicants in psychiatric risk is of growing concern, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), common in air pollution. Prenatal PAH exposure is linked to adverse physical, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes as well as increasing psychiatric risk. It …
Healthy Air, Healthy Brains: Advancing Air Pollution Policy to Protect Children’s Health
Evidence is growing on the adverse neurodevelopmental effects of exposure to combustion-related air pollution. Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neurodevelopmental Risks), a unique collaboration of leading scientists, health professionals, and children’s and environmental health advocates, has identified combustion-related air pollutants as critical targets for action to protect healthy brain development. We present policy recommendations fo…
Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist
Fossil-fuel combustion by-products are the world's most significant threat to children's health and future and are major contributors to global inequality and environmental injustice. The emissions include a myriad of toxic air pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most important human-produced climate-altering greenhouse gas. Synergies between air pollution and climate change can magnify the harm to children. Impacts include impairme…
Gestational weight gain and obesity, adiposity and body size in A frican– A merican and D ominican children in the B ronx and N orthern M anhattan
Gestational weight gain (GWG) is potentially modifiable and is associated with infant size and body composition; however, long-term effects on childhood obesity have not been reported among multi-ethnic urban populations. We examined the association between GWG and child anthropometric measures and body composition at 7 years [waist circumference (WC), body mass index z-score (BMIZ), obesity (BMIZ ≥95%ile) and bioelectrical impedance analysis est…
Science as an Early Driver of Policy: Child Labor Reform in the Early Progressive Era, 1870–1900
Scientific evidence is an increasingly important driver of social and environmental policy concerning child health. This trend began earlier than generally recognized. The child labor reform movement of the Gilded Age and early Progressive Era reflected not only moral and economic forces but also the dramatic advances during the later decades of the 19th century in scientific knowledge concerning children’s biological and psychological vulnerabil…
Chlorpyrifos Exposure and Urban Residential Environment Characteristics as Determinants of Early Childhood Neurodevelopment
Objectives. We evaluated whether neighborhood characteristics correlated with early neurodevelopment and whether these characteristics confounded the previously reported association between exposure to chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate insecticide) and neurodevelopment. Methods. We obtained prenatal addresses, chlorpyrifos exposure data, and 36-month Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) and Mental Development Index (MDI) scores for a birth cohort i…
Fetal Exposure to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Assessed by Maternal Self-reports and Cord Blood Cotinine: Prospective Cohort Study in Krakow
Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist
Fossil-fuel combustion by-products are the world's most significant threat to children's health and future and are major contributors to global inequality and environmental injustice. The emissions include a myriad of toxic air pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most important human-produced climate-altering greenhouse gas. Synergies between air pollution and climate change can magnify the harm to children. Impacts include impairme…
Chlorpyrifos Exposure and Urban Residential Environment Characteristics as Determinants of Early Childhood Neurodevelopment
Objectives. We evaluated whether neighborhood characteristics correlated with early neurodevelopment and whether these characteristics confounded the previously reported association between exposure to chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate insecticide) and neurodevelopment. Methods. We obtained prenatal addresses, chlorpyrifos exposure data, and 36-month Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) and Mental Development Index (MDI) scores for a birth cohort i…
Healthy Air, Healthy Brains: Advancing Air Pollution Policy to Protect Children’s Health
Evidence is growing on the adverse neurodevelopmental effects of exposure to combustion-related air pollution. Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neurodevelopmental Risks), a unique collaboration of leading scientists, health professionals, and children’s and environmental health advocates, has identified combustion-related air pollutants as critical targets for action to protect healthy brain development. We present policy recommendations fo…
Science as an Early Driver of Policy: Child Labor Reform in the Early Progressive Era, 1870–1900
Scientific evidence is an increasingly important driver of social and environmental policy concerning child health. This trend began earlier than generally recognized. The child labor reform movement of the Gilded Age and early Progressive Era reflected not only moral and economic forces but also the dramatic advances during the later decades of the 19th century in scientific knowledge concerning children’s biological and psychological vulnerabil…
Fetal Exposure to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Assessed by Maternal Self-reports and Cord Blood Cotinine: Prospective Cohort Study in Krakow
Chlorpyrifos Exposure and Urban Residential Environment Characteristics as Determinants of Early Childhood Neurodevelopment
Objectives. We evaluated whether neighborhood characteristics correlated with early neurodevelopment and whether these characteristics confounded the previously reported association between exposure to chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate insecticide) and neurodevelopment. Methods. We obtained prenatal addresses, chlorpyrifos exposure data, and 36-month Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) and Mental Development Index (MDI) scores for a birth cohort i…
Science as an Early Driver of Policy: Child Labor Reform in the Early Progressive Era, 1870–1900
Scientific evidence is an increasingly important driver of social and environmental policy concerning child health. This trend began earlier than generally recognized. The child labor reform movement of the Gilded Age and early Progressive Era reflected not only moral and economic forces but also the dramatic advances during the later decades of the 19th century in scientific knowledge concerning children’s biological and psychological vulnerabil…
Gestational weight gain and obesity, adiposity and body size in A frican– A merican and D ominican children in the B ronx and N orthern M anhattan
Gestational weight gain (GWG) is potentially modifiable and is associated with infant size and body composition; however, long-term effects on childhood obesity have not been reported among multi-ethnic urban populations. We examined the association between GWG and child anthropometric measures and body composition at 7 years [waist circumference (WC), body mass index z-score (BMIZ), obesity (BMIZ ≥95%ile) and bioelectrical impedance analysis est…
Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist
Fossil-fuel combustion by-products are the world's most significant threat to children's health and future and are major contributors to global inequality and environmental injustice. The emissions include a myriad of toxic air pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most important human-produced climate-altering greenhouse gas. Synergies between air pollution and climate change can magnify the harm to children. Impacts include impairme…
Healthy Air, Healthy Brains: Advancing Air Pollution Policy to Protect Children’s Health
Evidence is growing on the adverse neurodevelopmental effects of exposure to combustion-related air pollution. Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neurodevelopmental Risks), a unique collaboration of leading scientists, health professionals, and children’s and environmental health advocates, has identified combustion-related air pollutants as critical targets for action to protect healthy brain development. We present policy recommendations fo…
Prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons modifies the effects of early life stress on attention and Thought Problems in late childhood
BACKGROUND: Risk for childhood psychopathology is complex and multifactorial, implicating direct and interacting effects of familial and environmental factors. The role of environmental neurotoxicants in psychiatric risk is of growing concern, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), common in air pollution. Prenatal PAH exposure is linked to adverse physical, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes as well as increasing psychiatric risk. It …
Prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with altered brain structure, function, and metabolism in childhood
Background Prenatal exposure to air pollution disrupts cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development. The brain disturbances associated with prenatal air pollution are largely unknown. Methods In this prospective cohort study, we estimated prenatal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and then assessed their associations with measures of brain anatomy, tissue microstructure, neurometabolite…
Understanding the Role of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Stress in the Association between Proximity to the World Trade Center Disaster and Birth Outcomes
Fetal growth is affected by exposure to both prenatal stress and environmental contaminants. The attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) resulted in exposure to chemicals and psychological stress amongst New York City residents. We measured prenatal maternal stress and exposure to persistent organic pollutants (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs)) in 108 participants from a Colu…
Health benefits to the pediatric population from reduction of ambient particulate matter in Krakow, Poland
There have been few assessments of the health benefits to children of policies aimed at curbing fossil fuel-related air pollution. This has resulted in a lack of awareness regarding their positive impact on the health of this vulnerable population. We estimated the pediatric health benefits of policies targeting coal burning in one of Europe’s most polluted cities, Kraków, Poland. We combined available data on child health outcomes, related conce…
Children’s health impacts from a proposed decarbonization policy in the transportation sector in the Eastern United States
Health impact assessments have estimated substantial health co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies due to reductions in air pollution in the US; however, few studies have considered children’s health impacts and related equity implications. We estimated the potential health co-benefits to children related to improved air quality associated with various emissions cap and investment scenarios for the transportation sector in the Northe…
Combined prenatal exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and maternal distress is associated with childhood irritability
Background: Childhood irritability is a transdiagnostic risk marker of neurodevelopmental problems. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and psychosocial stressors have been independently associated with altered emotional and behavioral symptoms akin to irritability, but the joint effects of PAHs and maternal psychological distress on trajectories of irritability symptoms have not been directly examined. We hypothesized that combined exposure …
Medicine (9 works) · Air Quality and Health Impacts (7 works) · Environmental health (6 works) · Pregnancy (5 works) · Climate Change and Health Impacts (3 works) · Energy and Environment Impacts (3 works) · Environmental Science (3 works) · Internal Medicine (3 works) · Prenatal exposure (3 works) · Psychiatry (3 works)