Nevil Pierse

I started my research career in 2004 and undertook a PhD 2009 – 2011. My research goal is to best describe the relationship between environment and health, especially in the home and community setting. This has led to me endeavouring to seeking develop robust statistical measures that prove clear causation and suggest obvious remediation measures, as this is the only way to ensure public health action is taken and my research improves the quality of life of the population.

My early work focused on the link between air pollution and health. This was done in Leicester in the UK, where I was part of a team that looked at air pollution and carbon loading in children’s lung cells describe. We used this as evidence of a pathway with air pollution (as measured by PM10), lodging in the lungs cell and causing a reduction in lung function. We also published a paper on the impact of local traffic on respiratory symptoms in a larger cohort.

I was project manager and statistician for the Housing Heating and Health Study. My PhD used this study as a worked example, to design robust statistical models that allowed us the look at the results of the trial after adjusting for the placebo effect. I am currently working on the Home Injury Prevention Intervention study, where I will be look at the effectiveness of an intervention of basic injury hazards in 1000 homes.

In my spare time I try to improve the quality and accuracy of the statistical analysis in the asthma and allergy field, and to continue the development of the understanding on the health effects of environmental pollution, especially in NZ.