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Your Environment. Your Health.

Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Children’s Health

Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH)

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Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Children’s Health

October 12, 2022

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Interviewee: Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D.

In this episode, Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D., talks about how climate change and air pollution affect children’s health. She also discusses what health care professionals, policy makers, and parents can do to better protect kids from climate change- and air-pollution-related health impacts.

Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Children’s Health

Global reliance on fossil fuels has led to twin health crises: climate change and air pollution. Children, infants, and fetuses are especially vulnerable for an array biological and behavioral reasons. For example, children breathe at a faster rate than adults, increasing their exposure to dangerous air pollutants. Kids also spend more time outdoors, putting them at increased risk to adverse health impacts from extreme heat, air pollution, and allergens. Floods and other natural disasters can also lead to mental health disorders in kids. Although all children face the threat of climate change- and air-pollution-related health impacts, those from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds are at greatest risk.

In this episode, we hear from Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatrician and environmental health researcher at Stanford University. Nadeau is co-author of a review article appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, which examines how climate change and air pollution affect children’s health, and what pediatricians can do to better protect their patients.

Interviewee:

Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D.

Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician and an endowed professor at Stanford University specializing in adult and pediatric allergies, asthma, and immunology. Her roles include director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research; section chief in asthma and allergy in the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division; and senior director of clinical research for the Division of Hospital Medicine. As an environmental health researcher, Nadeau studies how air pollution, climate change, and wildfires affect health, particularly in underserved areas, with the aim of informing better prevention and treatment strategies.

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