Environmental Health, Climate Change and Sustainability SIG

Annual Summary for 2019

This year, the Environmental Health SIG conducted a SIG session/informal workshop at PAS on climate change and pediatrics. The title of this session was The Power of Your Stethoscope: Responding to Climate Change in Your Everyday Practice. Our featured speaker/workshop facilitator was Laura Anderko, Ph.D., RN who holds the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Chair in Values Based Health Care at Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies. She is a Professor and Director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment, and a scholar in the fields of epidemiology, public health, and environmental health. Our SIG session focused on climate change as an important driver of human health, with increasingly important influence over time. The session included a review of the health impacts of climate change, including the latest research and evidence. This was followed an interactive session highlighting the way in which individuals including clinicians, researchers, students, and others can advocate for policies and solutions as well as make changes in their daily life to lessen the impact of climate change. As part of the session, we sought feedback and discussed ways that the Environmental Health SIG might continue to work on climate change issues within the pediatric community. The session was well received among attendees.