Podcast: Climate Change, the Environment, and Children’s Health

Community health is often focused on the immediate “environment:” housing, food access, neighborhood safety and similar concerns. But much wider-scope environmental issues, such as climate change, are increasingly recognized as having an impact on health as well.

Leyla McCurdy, an environmental health consultant, and Perry Sheffield, MD, associate professor of Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Mount Sinai Hospital, stop by Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s flagship podcast PediaCast to discuss how environmental change affects children.

From direct trauma caused by natural disasters to indirect affects on asthma and allergies, young people can be particularly susceptible to these changes.

Mike Patrick, MD, Emergency Medicine physician at Nationwide Children’s and host of Pediacast, talks with McCurdy and Dr. Sheffield about efforts to improve environmental health for children and how parents can become involved.

Listen here, and check out this short fact sheet from the American Public Health Association.