Climate Clinic

Welcome back to Be the Expert! The article we are bringing to you today was first published in the journal “Science of the total environment”, in February this year, titled, “California's early transition to electric vehicles: Observed health and air quality co-benefits”. Authors were; Erika Garcia, Jill Johnston, Rob McConnell, Lawrence Palinkas, and Sandrah P. Eckel. In previous episodes, we...

Dr. Terry O’Connor, Dr. Nuzhat Islam, and MD-PhD candidate Douglas Fritz walk with us through their clinical case highlighting the impact of climate change on arboviral infectious disease. Check out their written case (adaptable for medical school curricula) at Climate Resources for Health Education here:  https://climatehealthed.org/course/arboviruses/ Dr. O’Connor is an instructor of Emergency M...

In this episode, we speak with medical student James Sullivan from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University about the process of creating an integrated climate-health curriculum at the medical school. If you want to learn more, check out this journal article about the Cleveland Clinic’s climate-health curricular design: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000004376 Episode...

In this episode, the Code Green team speak with Dr. Heather Whelan, Kelsey Barter, and Hossein Moein Taghavi about the connections between heat, air pollution, and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Whelan is a Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco, Kelsey is a medical student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Hossein is a research assistant at Stanford Univers...

In Episode 10, Adesh speaks to Dr Aletha Ward (co-Founder of Climate Action Nurses (CAN)), who talks about the organisation's role in enabling rapid healthcare decarbonisation through climate education for nurses in Australia. https://www.climateactionnurses.org/

In our latest show, Marc and Adesh discuss the findings from a scoping Review that was published recently in the journal, 'Neurology'. The article was titled "Impacts of Climate Change and Air Pollution on Neurologic Health, Disease, and Practice". The authors were Shreya Louis, Alise K. Carlson, Abhilash Suresh, Joshua Rim, Mary Ann Mays, Daniel Ontaneda and Andrew Dhawan. Artic...

In this fascinating episode, tune in to hear from Dr Melissa Frick, who is a chief resident in Radiation Oncology at Stanford University and serves as co-chair on the Greening the Clinics Initiative of the Stanford Healthcare Resident Safety Council. Find out about the exciting initiatives Melissa and her team have been undertaking at Stanford, and what Radiation Oncology can be doing to move towa...

In Episode 18, Marc and Adesh dive into an article recently published in the Lancet Planetary Health, titled "Hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease among older adults living near unconventional natural gas development: a difference-in-differences analysis". The authors were Kevin Trickey, Zihan Chen and Prachi Sanghavi. Tune in to find out how the fracking boom in P...

In this landmark study published in the Lancet Planetary Health by Altman and team, titled "Associations between outdoor air pollutants and non-viral asthma exacerbations and airway inflammatory responses in children and adolescents living in urban areas in the USA: a retrospective secondary analysis", the authors link specific air pollutants to unique molecular pathways of airway inflam...

In this episode, Adesh speaks with NHS Consultant Dr Alex Wilkinson on the environmental impact from asthma care, and more specifically metered dose inhalers. Dr Wilkinson shares his thoughts on what respiratory medicine needs to be doing in order to move towards zero or low carbon care. Article : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9056443/ Website links: 1. https://www.greenerpractice.c...

In this episode, Adesh and Marc discuss a recent paper published in the Royal Society Publishing (Biology Letters) by Colin Carlson, Ellen Bannon, Emily Mendenhall, Timothy Newfield and Shweta Bansal, which was titled "Rapid range shifts in African Anopheles mosquitoes over the last century". Tune in to hear about the potential implications for Malaria transmission in Africa over the com...

In this new episode, hosts Marc Futernick and Adesh Sundaresan explore how climate change is driving increases in rates of preterm deliveries around the world, using a brilliant Review article recently published by Luis Federico Bátiz, Sebastián E. Illanes, Roberto Romero, María del Valle Barrera, Citra N.Z. Mattar, Mahesh A. Choolani, Matthew W. Kemp, titled "Climate change and preterm birth: A n...

In Episode 14, our hosts bring you an original article published in the Lancet Planetary Health in May 2022, titled “Long term exposure to wildfires and cancer incidence in Canada: a population-based observational cohort study”. The authors were Jill Korsiak, Lauren Pinault, Tanya Christidis, Richard T Burnett, Michael Abrahamowicz and Scott Weichenthal. Tune in to hear how your risk of lung and b...

In this episode, we speak to the founders of the world's first ever 100% compostable isolation gown, Jonathan Mustich and John Sharpe. Jonathan and John discuss their new company, Biogown, and the unique product they are taking to markets around the world - which rivals many of the existing plastic gowns both in function and cost.  Find out more at the website below: https://thebiogown.com

In part two of our dive into how droughts affect human health, our hosts bring you an article published in the British Medical Journal (October 2020), titled "Protecting health in dry cities: considerations for policy makers". The authors were Howard Frumkin, Maitreyi Bordia Das, Maya Negev, Briony C Rogers, Roberto Bertollini, Carlos Dora, Sonalde Desai. Tune in to learn what is meant by a 'healt...

In this episode, Adesh talks with trailblazer emergency physician Dr Stefan Wheat. Stefan has recently launched Climate Rx, an innovative tool to help healthcare providers and health professionals educate their patients on the impacts of climate change on their health, ways to protect their health in a changing climate, and how to get more involved. ClimateRx provides tools, training, peer-reviewe...

In Episode 12, Marc and Adesh delve into a Review published in the Annual Review of Public Health in December 2022, titled "Public Health Implications of Drought in a Climate Change Context: A Critical Review". Learn about how droughts affect our health, from worsening infectious diseases and air pollution, to causing undernutrition and malnourishment.  Article: https://doi.org/10.1146/a...

In Episode 5 of Be the Change, Adesh has an insightful conversation with dentist Dr Laurie Houston from Ontario, Canada. Dr Houston shares her experiences with pushing for regulatory changes as well as her thoughts on healthcare waste including micro plastics.  https://www.oralhealthgroup.com/features/covid-and-the-failure-to-challenge/ https://cape.ca/the-life-cycle-of-plastic-is-a-death-spi...

In Episode 11, Marc and Adesh talk us through a study from 2020 that was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease , which looked at the association between climate change and suicide, titled "Climate Change and Risk of Completed Suicide", by authors Caroline Dumont, MD, Elizabeth Haase, MD, Trygve Dolber, MD, Janet Lewis, MD, and John Coverdale, MD, MEd.  DOI: 10.1097/NMD.000000...

In our first episode of 2023, Dr Preeti Jaggi and Adesh explore a Review titled "Climate change and child health: a scoping review and expanded conceptual framework", that was published in the Lancet Planetary Health.   https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30274-6 Hosts: Preeti Jaggi, Adesh Sundaresan

In the final episode of this series on climate, urbanisation and health, Adesh and Marc delve into a recent study published in the Journal of Climate Change and Health (JCCH) titled, "URBANIZATION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH VULNERABILITIES IN SLUM COMMUNITIES IN GHANA".  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100189 Hosts: Marc Futernick, Adesh Sundaresan

In part three of this series, our hosts look at an article titled "The impact of greenspace or nature-based interventions on cardiovascular health or cancer-related outcomes: A systematic review of experimental studies". Tune in to learn about how just exercising with a virtual green screen, might improve cardiovascular outcomes in select patients! Article: Bikomeye JC, Balza JS, Kwarteng JL, Beye...

In this episode, Kristie Hadley speaks with Dr Norma Patricia Muñoz and Dr Saroj Pachauri, for a deep dive on the health impacts of Sargassum (a type of macroalgae).  Hosts: Kristie Hadley, Adesh Sundaresan Guests: Dr Norma Patricia Muñoz, Dr Saroj Pachauri

In part two of this series, our hosts bring you a Review titled "Climate change and opportunistic pathogens (OPs) in the built environment", published in the Journal of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors. Learn about how three key OPs are making themselves at home in our premise plumbing and posing a serious risk to our health.  Article: Juliette O’Keeffe. Climate change and o...

In part one of "No urban legend", Marc and Adesh explore a recently published Review that looks at the health impacts from urban air pollution and the urban heat island effect. This Review, titled “ Urban Air Pollution, Urban Heat Island and Human Health: A Review of the Literature”, was published in the journal Sustainability, in July 2022. The authors also looked at some innovative urban plannin...