Dr. Howard Frumkin
On January 24, 2017, Marketplace, the American Public Media radio program, reported that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) abruptly cancelled a long scheduled three day Climate Change Summit that was set to take place in February in Atlanta.
On the same day Breitbart News – formerly run by the senior Trump advisor Steve Bannon, wrote: The CDC cancelation of their climate change event “is unquestionably a result of the Trump Effect: the CDC is one of many US federal agencies which have been forced rapidly to adjust their priorities…. the CDC’s job is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease… What does climate change have to do with this? Nothing. … The evidence that man-made climate change is damaging to human health is at best flimsy, at worst fabricated.”
Professor Howard Frumkin is one of the senior scientists prevented from speaking when the CDC conference was cancelled. He specializes in Public Health and Climate Change and was a former director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the CDC. He is now professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington and served as Dean of the School of Public Health.
Two days after the CDC announced that they were canceling their Climate Change Summit a response emerged from a coalition of public health scientists, NGOs and non-profits. Scientific American wrote – quote – “The conference is now back on — but not at the CDC. Former Vice Pres. Al Gore will instead convene the event on February 16 at the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta.” Dr. Frumkin will host the alternate conference. <https://www.climaterealityproject.org/health>
This TUC Radio program features a very recent (November 17, 2016) talk by Dr. Frumkin entitled: What climate change data can tell us about the emergence and spread of diseases. An informative and engaging appeal to take climate change into account in matters of public health.
High spirited, with a good sense of humor, Frumkin explains how climate change affects the whole spectrum of concerns of public health. He shows how Public Health has already paid attention and responded to the impact of climate change on heat-waves, extreme weather events, air quality, food production and displacement of peoples. And he explains how climate change affects a large number of diseases that may be accelerated or moved into areas previously free from them, such as Malaria, Encephalitis, Hantavirus, Rift Valley Fever, West Nile Virus, Cholera and harmful algae blooms in warming waters and more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
