 School of Public Health and Community Medicine - University of Washington - Autumn 2007 |
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| Children's Environmental Health | Protecting Children | History: Children's Hospital Bridging Environmental & Occupational Health | Focus on Climate Change | Continuing Education & Events Conference Presentations | Distinguished Faculty Lecture | People & Places | Global Health | Anniversary Party The Fine Print | PDF |
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| Focus on Climate Change | ||
Wind generation is seen as an alternative to fossil fuels. Copyright www.photos.com What do heat stroke, particulate air pollution, and infectious diseases have in common? They are all related, either as cause or effect, to global climate change. Two of our faculty are part of a state working group that aims to assess the health impacts of climate change. Several of our department's graduate students and faculty are also participating in the Focus the Nation campaign, through which the University of Washington is sponsoring a symposium on campus. This campaign involves faculty, students, and staff at more than a thousand colleges, universities, and high schools in the United States in an interdisciplinary discussion centered around the theme of "Global Warming Solutions for America." Focus the Nation will culminate in a network of one-day symposia held simultaneously on campuses across the country. The UW event will run from 10 am to 5 pm Jan. 31 in the Husky Union Building (HUB), followed at 7 pm by a town hall discussion in Kane Hall with political leaders, including Mayor Greg Nickels, Congressman Jay Inslee, state Rep. Fred Jarrett, and King County Executive Ron Sims, moderated by Steve Scher (KUOW), and introduced by UW President Mark Emmert. Our department is one of several on campus financially underwriting the event and planning an exhibit. A dozen graduate students are creating the DEOHS display, which will include posters that define environmental and occupational health, make the connection to climate change and health effects, and focus on individual and community actions that can help reduce the rate of climate change. Professor Jane Koenig, who researches particulate air pollution, is assisting the student-led initiative. She is concerned that increased temperature will increase ground-level air pollutants and result in greater numbers of air pollutant-induced illnesses and deaths. Meanwhile, Professor Richard Fenske and Adjunct Assistant Professor Catherine Karr are part of UW's Climate Change and Human Health Impact Team (CHIT). This collaboration grew out of the Governor's Climate Challenge (Executive Order 70-02) and the Legislature's House Bill 1303, plus efforts by the state Department of Health. Karr, director of our Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), is leading the air quality section of the study, reviewing existing data and data gaps to characterize the potential effects of climate change scenarios on the state's air quality and its effect on cardiopulmonary health. Fenske is cochairing the heat/thermal stress study with Roger Rosenblatt, UW Family Medicine. Fenske heads the Pacific Northwest Agriculture Safety and Health (PNASH) center, which is concerned with heat-related illnesses among farmworkers and others who work outdoors. Other CHIT areas are infectious disease, headed by Ann Marie Kimball, professor of Epidemiology, and J. Elizabeth Jackson, doctoral student in Family Medicine and Sociology; extreme weather events, headed by Rosenblatt; and social disruption, stress, and economic disparities, headed by Jackson. For Further Reading |
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