Jeffrey R. Brook

Jeffrey Brook has 25 years of experience as an Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) scientist working at the science-policy interface. During that time he spent 15 years as faculty at the University of Toronto, where he was involved in research, lecturing and graduate student training. He is one of Canada’s leading experts in air quality, recognized at all levels of government and academically, including for his substantial contributions in air pollution health research. Dr. Brook has led scientific assessments to inform policy nationally and internationally, and advised multi-stakeholder groups shaping policy. For the past five years he has been serving on the Research Committee of the Health Effects Institute (HEI), which is a leading international organization helping to support the mandates of the automotive industry and the U.S. EPA.

Dr. Brook has led a variety of multi-disciplinary research teams in government, government-academic partnerships and in academia. While at ECCC Dr. Brook co-led a 10+ year research program across federal departments studying particulate matter composition and emissions from motor vehicles and the development and deployment of a heavily instrumented mobile lab, CRUISER.  This led to multiple detailed studies on source apportionment, emission factors and characterization of near-road air pollution and development of urban exposure maps for several Canadian cities which have enabled considerable research into the health effects of traffic-related air pollution.  Recently his efforts have incorporated a wider variety of environmental factors recognizing that our health results from the combined effects of multiple exposures throughout the lifecourse.  For example, for 12 years now he has been leading the Environmental Working Group of the Canadian Health Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study, Canada’s largest birth cohort, which is based at SickKids Hospital and McMaster University and covers four cities and one rural area in Canada.

To advance Canadian research in considering multiple exposures, including air pollution, Dr. Brook started the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE). This pan-Canadian data and methods platform brings together diverse spatially-resolved environmental data, including many parameters that relate to the urban population’s interaction with the transportation system and individual transport, including access to active transportation options.

Specialty focus areas

Environmental health, exposure assessment, urban air quality, health effects studies.