Recent public health threats such as COVID, and the current bird flu outbreak in Victoria, show we can’t separate human health from the natural environment. Our research examining the link between lead exposure in house sparrows and children is another sobering reminder of this shared health burden.
Birds have long been considered sentinels for environmental health – hence the proverbial “canary in the coal mine”. Urban sparrows are particularly useful sentinels, because they tend to live in the same places as humans.
