Public Health Grand Rounds focuses on climate change
| The last Public Health Grand Rounds program, “Global Climate Change: Implications for Public Health”, featured nationally distinguished experts from CDC who discussed the case for the potential impact of climate change on the public’s health. The webcast, held on November 5, 2009, also focused on various processes, tools and resources which are currently available, to support efforts to prepare for the affects of climate change in your state or community.
There is widespread scientific consensus that the world’s climate is changing. Some of the effects of climate change are likely to include more variable weather, heat waves, heavy precipitation events, flooding, droughts, more intense storms such as hurricanes, sea level rise, and air pollution. Each of these changes has the potential to negatively affect health. Climate change has the potential to impact health in many ways. While some of these are unpredictable, others are supported by considerable evidence. Panelists for the webcast included Robert Blake, MPH, REHS, chief of the Environmental Health Services Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, director of the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, George Luber, PhD, associate director for Global Climate Change for the National Center for Environmental Health, and Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH, consultant with the National Center for Environmental Health. Edward L. Baker, MD, MPH, director of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, moderates the program. As the nation’s public health agency, CDC is using its prevention expertise to address climate change and is preparing for the possibility of health effects related to climate change in the same way it prepares for the possibilities of bioterrorism and pandemic influenza. As part of these efforts, experts are making use of the knowledge and experience gained from previous natural disasters and disease outbreaks. Public Health Grand Rounds is produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. You can view an archive of this program and others in the series at the Public Health Grand Rounds website. |
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