Professor Simon Kingham
Position: Professor, Director of GeoHealth Laboratory, Deputy Director of Geospatial Research Institute toi hangara, Department of Georgraphy, University of Canterbury. Field: Geography.
Simon Kingham taking air samples
Professor Simon Kingham is researching the levels of polluting particulates present in the air in Christchurch. Here, he is using a portable device to measure the levels of particulates on a street with heavy traffic.
Professor Simon Kingham is a researcher in the Geography Department at the University of Canterbury. His research interests include investigating air pollution, transport and health and the links between them.
Simon Kingham: My career
Professor Simon Kingham, from the University of Canterbury, talks about how he became a scientist. He did not try particularly hard at school or university, but when he studied well, he got very good grades. When a high-achieving graduate friend of his died, he rethought his career and wondered what he could do to make something of his life.
His interest in health and transport began when he was studying at Lancaster University in the UK. He graduated with a BA (Hons) in Geography and worked for a while researching how to make a better fly spray! He then decided to return to full-time study and focused on a more long-term project for a PhD. In this study, he investigated the effects of air pollution from a hospital incinerator. At the time, hospital incinerators were exempt from British regulations but health authorities were increasingly becoming concerned about the impact the incinerator was having on the health of the population.
Simon Kingham's PhD
University of Canterbury’s Professor Simon Kingham’s PhD investigated the effects of a hospital incinerator on air pollution and the effects of this on people’s health. This study is what sparked Simon’s interest in researching the links between air pollution and people’s health.
The thing that excites me about my work – if my research can help make New Zealand cleaner and it can clean up the air, which means people can walk around without getting asthma, then that’s fantastic, that is what I want to do.
“There were terrible stories about limbs being put in hospital incinerators with all these dressings and things and some guy would throw a match in and hope, and there were people recording bits of dressings with blood on them coming out the top because they weren’t working properly,” says Simon. “Now, fortunately, the law has changed in Britain, and they can’t do that.”
A cyclist's journey
A graph showing the levels of particulates encountered by a cyclist travelling on different types of paths. This graph shows that the levels of particulates tend to be localised. The peaks near roundabouts show how the density of traffic can affect particulate levels. What do you think could have caused the spike in particulates at 8:41 minutes into the journey?
After completing this project, he worked at the University of Newcastle where he studied the impacts on people’s health of a factory in north-east England. This was followed by a stint at the University of Huddersfield, where, among other studies, he examined the exposure of different groups of commuters to air pollution and discovered that motorists’ exposure was higher than cyclists. He also discovered that cyclists who used cycle pathways away from traffic had less exposure to the air pollution.
Air pollution study
Professor Simon Kingham at the Geography Department, University of Canterbury, explains how he has been asked by the government to estimate some of the costs of air pollution – how it affects people’s health and may cause them to die, to need time off work because they are sick or to go to hospital for medical treatment.
Simon then got a lectureship at the University of Hertfordshire, where he continued his pollution research including monitoring the particulates produced from different forms of transport. In 2000, he came to the University of Canterbury on a visiting lectureship in the Department of Geography, and while he was here, he was offered a full-time job and he has stayed ever since.
An environment epidemiologist
Professor Simon Kingham, of the University of Canterbury, discusses why he describes himself as an environment epidemiologist.
Recently, Simon has been involved in a large study that looks at the effects of air pollution in the form of particulates produced by fires and traffic on health. Particulate levels were measured and mapped by urban area for the whole of New Zealand at a fine spatial resolution. This information was then compared with illness and mortality statistics. It is estimated that, in New Zealand as a whole, air pollution has contributed to a 4.8% increase in mortality, but in Christchurch that figure is even higher at 11.8%.
Why do scientists do what they do?
Professor Simon Kingham, of the University of Canterbury, is excited to think that his research can influence government policy on environmental issues. He likes to do research that addresses real problems.
Simon’s research can help the government and regional councils to develop strategies to reduce the level of air pollution and therefore improve the health of many people.
Air pollution research data
Professor Simon Kingham, from the University of Canterbury, explains how scientists often use sources of data that are collected as part of other studies. Researchers at the university use the data from the general Census, collected every five years, to compare the number of people who heat their homes using wood burners with changes in air pollution levels.
At the start of 2018 Professor Simon Kingham was named the first Chief Science Adviser for the Ministry of Transport, Te Manatū Waka.
Useful link
In this video, Simon explains what the GeoHealth Laboratory is.
This article is based on information current in 2008 and updated in 2018.
