Air Health Our Health

Ritney Castine joins me today to talk kids, tobacco, and flavors, and also about the time he had to lobby a smoking Senator and future President! He is the former Managing Director of Community and Youth Engagement at Truth Initiative , a Washington, DC-based public health organization and also the former Director of Youth Advocacy at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids . He currently works with Ce...

Today I am joined by Dr. Fernando Holguin , the Director of the Clinical and Research Asthma Program and the Executive Director of the Colorado School of Public Health ’s Latino Research and Policy Center. We discuss the interaction of asthma, obesity and air pollution today, with a particular focus on how it impacts Latino communities in the United States. Patients with asthma who are obese often...

Hoy me acompaña el Dr. Fernando Holguin .  Discutimos la interacción del asma, la obesidad y la contaminación del aire en la actualidad, con un enfoque particular en cómo impacta a las comunidades latinas en los Estados Unidos.  ¡También discutimos lo que se puede hacer a nivel individual y comunitario para mejorar nuestra salud! Que hacer 1- Disminuir los alimentos procesados en la diet...

You may remember Destiny Aman from the recent episode on the science of vaccines. She’s back to talk about having these conversations from the behavioral science side of things. Destiny Aman runs JPoint Collaborative and has a background in behavioral science working as a risk communication expert and has over 20 years of helping translate science into practical solutions adapting to environmental...

Today I am releasing the first of two podcasts about COVID19 vaccination on the day before World Lung Day 2021 .  I talk to two experts in their fields, Dr. Gigi Gronvall PhD and Destiny Aman . Dr. Gronvall studies the immune system and is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and on the editorial board of the journal Health Security .  She is a biosecurity and...

Today, I’m providing a summary of the health effects of wildfire smoke. I recorded a webinar in June 2021 on the health effects of wildfire smoke that is available in English and Spanish . I’m providing an expanded podcast version of that summary here today. Topics covered include: What we know and don’t know, vulnerable/sensitive groups, short and long term effects of wildfire smoke and individua...

Back to school with Season Two of Air Health Our Health! I am joined by Dr Paula Olsiewski of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, where she is a pioneering leader in policy and scientific research programs in the microbiology and chemistry of indoor environments. She spent two decades at the Alfred P Sloane foundation leading innovative and multidisciplinary programs partnering with acad...

What a year! Thanks to all of you who have been listening to the Air Health Our Health podcast. In this episode, I share my thoughts on what it has been like to live and work as an ICU and lung doctor this year during COVID19, worry about three young children, and ask your input on thinking ahead to Season Two! To Do 1- Catch up on episodes you missed and please like the podcast, leave a review an...

Today I am joined by Ashia Allen, whom I first met when she was critically-ill at Emanuel Hospital with severe asthma. She shares her story growing up in Albina near freeways and construction and what it was like to live with asthma. Ben Duncan joins me as well to discuss the history of working on air pollution concerns in Albina, a formerly red-lined district and the historic heart of the black c...

Hoy hablo con el Dr. Juan Celedón , profesor de pediatría, medicina, epidemiología y genética humana y Jefe de División de Medicina Pulmonar Pediátrica en Universidad de Pittsburgh y el primer presidente latino de la American Thoracic Society, sobre el asma en la comunidad hispana de EE. UU. Exploramos cómo el aire que respiramos puede afectar nuestro riesgo y el riesgo de nuestros hijos. Esc...

Dr. Vivek Shandas is a Professor of Climate Adaptation and Founder and Director of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab at Portland State University and serves as Chair of the City of Portland’s Urban Forestry Commission in addition to other local and national advisory boards. He joins me on the podcast today to discuss his research on everything from trees in human communities, nitrogen dioxi...

Bienvenido/a al primer podcast de "Air Health Our Health" en español.  El Dr. Alejandro Díaz es profesor asistente de medicina en la Escuela de Medicina de Harvard, donde enseña español médico, y médico científico que estudia imágenes pulmonares en el Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  También estudia la salud respiratoria de la comunidad hispana / latina y le apasiona comprender mejor los d...

In a first on the podcast, we are joined by an analyst from Wallet Hub, a financial literacy website. Jill Gonzalez normally appears on venues such as Fox Business Network, the Wall Street Journal Live, C-Span, and Fortune. Today she joins me to talk about WalletHub's analysis - The True Cost of Smoking . Listen and learn to find out how much smoking costs the individual over a lifetime, and all t...

Dr. Alejandro Diaz of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital joins me today to talk about chronic bronchitis and challenges facing the US Hispanic Community, as well as the health effects of cleaning agent exposure. To Do: 1- Support more research on health in Hispanic community- one such study is going on in COVID19 in Yakima WA now, funded by the ALA. There is still time to dona...

Today on the podcast, I am joined by Gabriella Shirtcliff, who is a junior in high school and shares her experience about e-cigarettes and vaping among her peers. Karen Ard works in public health in the Deschutes County and works with Gabriella to address teen tobacco use. This episode is vital for all of us, but especially parents and educators concerned about Big Tobacco’s grip on a new generati...

Today I am joined by Will Graff . Will is a home inspector who is passionate about healthy, energy efficient, and sustainable homes. He is also a strong advocate for radon-testing, which is what he is here to talk about today. Radon is personal for him, and has affected his family in a devastating way. Today, he shares his radon story, and why he urges testing. See more about Will’s story here . T...

What do we know and how do we know it? To answer questions such as “What causes cancer?” we need the science of epidemiology. There is a lot of pseudoscience out there as well as well-meaning but poorly-designed studies that throw confusion on an issue. To get to the bottom of radon science, I talk today to Professor Bill Field , who is an epidemiologist and radon expert. We talk about the history...

Today's brief podcast is a reflection on the gifts of hope in the current darkness. I share my perspective as an ICU doctor seeing the toll of COVID19, and how I find joy in the midst of sorrow. We touch on what the science has shown us about indoor spread, and I share a couple strategies I have used to maintain contact with family and loved ones safely.   This is the last podcast of 202...

I am a lung doctor who cares for patients in the clinic and ICU when they are sickened from diseases caused or worsened by air pollution. However, air pollution is actually even more damaging to the heart and blood vessels of the body, as my podcast guest Dr. Thomas Muenzel today knows too well. He is a heart doctor who can help intervene to open up arteries on patients who are suffering from bloc...

I am joined today by Professor Christopher Migliaccio , who is a researcher and professor at the University of Montana Center for Environmental Health Sciences. He studies the way the immune system of the lung interacts with environmental exposures. He has studied the impact of wildfire smoke on our health and published a study that is useful to understanding the potential impact of short term, hi...

Dr. Beate Ritz, MD, PhD became interested in air pollution and its effects on pregnancy when she was pregnant herself. She has a wide-ranging career, but over the last several decades has helped us understand more about the impacts of every day transportation-related air pollution on pregnant women and their children. Listen and learn! As always, for links to the studies, please be sure to visit t...

What would happen in terms of our health and wealth if we started only purcashing electric vehicles by the year 2030? Today on the podcast I talk to Will Barrett of the American Lung Association about the new analysis the ALA has commissioned called the Road to Clean Air . We recorded this with sky high levels of PM2.5 outside due to wildfires worsened by climate change, and it was an analysis tha...

Join for a conversation with Dr. Farzad Moazed, MD , who has studied the impacts of tobacco on the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which is the dreaded fulminant respiratory failure that can be seen from severe viral illnesses like influenza and COVID19. Listen and learn! What Can you Do? 1- Support people to quit smoking and vaping- do this in every way you can. If you smoke, go to th...

Like many in the West and other parts of the world increasingly affected by fire, I think often of the hard work and heroism of our wildland firefighters. “Los bomberos” have been regularly mentioned in our family prayers before meals and bedtimes, and my children have participated enthusiastically in making thank you cards. As a lung doctor, I worry frequently about the health of frontline worker...

This podcast is airing while catastrophic wildfires are raging over the entire West Coast, and many of us have been living in air quality that is beyond the air toxics index. I have never thought so much about my HVAC system and the trade-offs of protecting my home from external particulate matter and needing to ventilate my home. As a lung doctor, it is hard not to think about how much our buildi...