About

Awards/Scholarships

• Recipient of Scott Moncrieff Scholarship from the Medical School, University of Birmingham, UK    

• Recipient of Swedish Institute Guest Scholarship

Research Interest

My research focuses on children and women’s environmental health and, more broadly, assessing environmental exposures and their potential health effects in highly vulnerable populations including mothers, children, low-income/underserved communities, and occupational populations. Specifically, I am interested in assessing the impact of environmental exposures in homes and at schools; and the health impacts of pesticides, indoor biomass, outdoor air pollution, climate change, and chemicals in consumer products on vulnerable populations. I also seek to take my research a step further and design and implement interventions to mitigate environmental exposures and minimize the risk of potential adverse health outcomes.I have experience working in women’s environmental health research and conducting exposure and epidemiologic pesticide and indoor biomass research. I have expertise in methods in systematic review and meta-analysis and have led several international projects in this area including effectiveness of interventions to reduce indoor air pollution and/or improve health in homes using solid fuel in lower and middle income countries; indoor mold exposure and health; arsenic in drinking water and adverse pregnancy outcomes, etc.

Teaching

• Environmental Epidemiology (BPH)

• Principles of Occupational hygiene (M.Sc Occupational Medicine/Occupational Hygiene)

• Principles of Ergonomics (M.Sc Occupational Medicine/Occupational Hygiene)

• Essentials of Environmental and Occupational Impact on Human (MPH)

• Advanced Environmental Health (Ph.D)

Education and Qualification

• Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Environmental and Respiratory Health Research, University of Oulu, Finland

• Ph.D, University of Birmingham, UK

• M.Sc, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden

• BSc (Hons), University of Cape Coast

Working Experience

Positions of Trust

• Member of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE)       

• Member of the ISEE Ethics and Philosophy Committee

• Executive Committee member of the Students and new Researchers Network of the ISEE

• A member of the committee of the Best Environmental   Epidemiology Paper (BEEP) award: We were mandated by the ISEE to select the best environmental epidemiology paper for an award for ISEE conferences         

• Member of the International Society for Children's Health and the Environment (ISCHE)   

• Editorial Board Member, World Journal of Meta-analysis            

• Member of the Finnish Epidemiologic Society           

• Part of the 2013 Council Committee Members (Congress Meeting in Basel of the International Society for Environmental. (http://www.iseepi.org/Members/CouncilorAccess/Docs/minutes-2013-Aug20-Ba...)

Publications

• Quansah R, Armah FA, Essumang DK, Luginaah I, Clarke E, Marfoh K, Cobbina SJ, Nketiah-Amponsah E, Namujju PB, Obiri S, Dzodzomenyo M. Association of arsenic with adverse pregnancy outcomes/infant mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Environ Health Perspect. 2015 May;123(5):412-21.

• Quansah R, Ochieng CA, Semple S, Juvekar S, Emina J, Armah FA, Luginaah I. Effectiveness of interventions to reduce indoor air pollution and/or improve health in homes using solid fuel in lower and middle income countries: protocol for a systematic review. Syst Rev. 2015 Mar 4; 4:22. doi: 10.1186/s13643.

• Armah FA, Quansah R, Luginaah I, Chuenpagdee R, Hambati H, Campbell G. Historical Perspective and Risk of Multiple Neglected Tropical Diseases in Coastal Tanzania: Compositional and Contextual Determinants of Disease Risk. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015 Aug 4;9(8):e0003939

• Cobbina S, Duwiejuah AB, Quansah R, Obir Si, Bakobie N. Comparative Assessment of Heavy Metals in Drinking Water Sources in Two Small-Scale Mining Communities in Northern Ghana. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015 Aug 28;12(9):10620-34.

• Basu N, Clarke E, Green A, Calys-Tagoe B, Chan L, Dzodzomenyo M, Fobil J, Long RN, Neitzel RL, Obiri S, Odei E, Ovadje L, Quansah R, Rajaee M, Wilson ML. Integrated assessment of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Ghana--part 1: human health review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015 May 13;12(5):5143-76.

2014

• Frederick Ato Armah, Quansah R and Isaac Luginaah. A systematic Review of Heavy Metals of Anthropogenic Origin in Environmental Media and Biota in the Context of Gold Mining in Ghana International Scholarly Research Notices. Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 252148, 37 pages

• Amegah AK, Quansah R and Jaakkola JJK Household air pollution from solid fuel use and risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. PLoS One. 2014; 9(12): e113920.

• Hernberg S, Sripaiboonkij P, Quansah R, Jaakkola JJ, Jaakkola MS. Lung function is reduced among subjects with asthma exposed to mold odor. Chest. 2014 Jul 1;146(1):e28-9. doi: 10.1378/chest.14-0582.

• Hernberg S, Sripaiboonkij P, Quansah R, Jaakkola JJ, Jaakkola MS. Indoor molds and lung function in healthy adults. Respir Med. 2014 May; 108(5):677-84. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2014.03.004. Epub 2014 Mar 18

2013

• Jaakkola MS, Quansah R, Hugg TT, Heikkinen SA, Jaakkola JJ. Association of indoor dampness and molds with rhinitis risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2013 Nov;132(5):1099-1110.e18

2012

• Quansah R, Jaakkola MS, Hugg T, Heikkinen SAN, Jaakkola JJK. Residential Dampness and Molds and the Risk of Developing Asthma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e47526. doi: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0047526. Epub 2012 Nov 7.

• Amegah AK, Jaakkola JKK, Quansah R, Norgbe GK, Dzodzomenyo M. Cooking Fuel Choices and Garbage Burning Practices of Accra Households as Determinants of Birth Weight. Environ Health 2012; 11(1):78.

• Heikkinen S, Quansah R, Jaakkola JJK, Jaakkola MS. Effects of regular exercise in Adult asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Epidemiol 2012 Apr 25

2010

• Quansah R, Jaakkola JJK. Occupational exposures and adverse pregnancy outcomes among nurses: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Womens Health 2010; 19: 1851-62

• Halliday-Bell JA, Quansah R, Gissler M, Jaakkola JJ. Laboratory work and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Occup Med (Lond). 2010; 60:310-3

BOOK CHAPTER

Jaakkola JJ, Quansah R Building materials, furnishing and health: In Tarlo S, Nemery B and Cullinan P, ed. Environmental and Occupational Lung Diseases. A John Willey & Sons Ltd. Publication. UK. 2010; pg 69-79

Ongoing Projects

1. The Offinso North district Farm Health study (ONFAHS): The Offinso North district Farm Health Study (ONFAHS) is an ongoing population-based cross-sectional study of respiratory diseases/symptoms, neurodevelopmental outcomes, adverse pregnancy outcomes and other health outcomes among farmers and their family living in farming communities in the Offinso north district of the Ashanti region. 

2. The Traditional Smokehouses studies among Fish smokers at Aboadze/Abuesi

3. Health Study among communities residing near Abokobi Open dumpsite.