Dr Simon Griffiths

Assistant Professor

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

After completing an accredited BSc degree in Environmental Health in 1995 I was awarded the Environmental Health Officers’ Registration Board certificate and began to practice as an Environmental Health Officer in UK local government. I have practiced in all areas of environmental health (food safety, health and safety, housing, and environmental protection) but most of post qualification experience was in the field of environmental protection where I also spent a number of years as the team manager for.

In 2008 I joined the Health Protection Agency as an Environmental Public Health Scientist in the then Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division. I moved to the HPA’s Health Emergency Planning Service in 2009 taking a lead role in risk management, chemical hazards, radiation, flooding, etc. in the resilience function.

I joined Northumbria University in 2011 and currently lead the accredited MSc Environmental Health programme.

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Key Publications

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Evaluating Public Exposure to Airborne Particulates from Major Incident Fires: A Back Trajectory Plume Modelling Approach, Griffiths, S., King, H., Wilkinson, J., Kelly, F., Entwistle, J., Deary, M. 15 Jun 2025, In: Journal of Hazardous Materials
“Prevention rather than cure”…a role for LRFs?, Griffiths, S., Marshall, S. 2 Jul 2025
Reducing the impact of episodic air pollution on public health, Griffiths, S. 30 Jan 2025, CIEH Air Quality Conference
Retrospective evaluation of a large tyre fire: population vulnerabilities and implications for public health response: A61, Griffiths, S. 4 Sep 2025, UKADR 2025
A novel application of back trajectory modelling to characterise public exposure to PM10 from a typical UK major open uncontrolled fire, Griffiths, S., Deary, M. 19 Jun 2024, UK Public Health Science 2024
A novel application of PM10 back trajectory industrial plume modelling to characterise the vulnerabilities of the exposed population: Implications for public health emergency planning, Griffiths, S. 12 Nov 2024, Housing, Health and Extreme Events
A novel approach to the development of 1-hour threshold concentrations for exposure to particulate matter during the response to episodic air pollution events, Griffiths, S., Deary, M. 18 Jun 2024, 17th European Public Health Conference
The Impact of Air Pollution from Industrial Fires in Urban Settings: Monitoring, Modelling, Health, and Environmental Justice Perspectives, Deary, M., Griffiths, S. 21 Jul 2024, In: Environments
Characterising the organic/inorganic species in plumes from open uncontrolled industrial fires using incident contemporaneous FTIR monitoring: Supporting Public Health Risk Assessment, Griffiths, S., Deary, M. 13 Jun 2023, Goldschmidt 2023

Professional Activity

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Consultancy: Invited advice to support the 2025 CIEH noise complaint survey 2025
Other: Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers' advocate on Environmental Protection matters 2025
Membership of network: Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers (External organisation) 2025
Membership of board: Chadwick Trust (External organisation) 2024
Visiting an external academic institution: University of Central Lancashire 2024
Consultancy: Embedding prevention into Local Resilience Fora in the UK 2024
Membership of committee: Faculty of Public Health (External organisation) 2023
Other: Impact of Waste Disposal on Air Pollution in the Republic of Serbia 2022
Consultancy: Evolution of a new international qualification and chartered status process 2018
Membership of committee: Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (External organisation) 2012

Qualifications

Environmental Studies/Science PhD February 21 2024
Education PGCHE April 01 2014
Engineering MSc September 01 2008
Accoustics and Noise Control PGDip July 01 1997
Environmental Science and other Physical Science BSc (Hons) July 04 1995
Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2014
Member (MCIWM) Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (CIWM) 2014
Chartered Env Health Practitioner Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) 2007
Chartered Voting Member (CMCIEH) Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) 2007