All parents find themselves worrying about their children’s present health and what the future holds. I am no different. There are many facts of climate change I have seen in my own life here in the Pacific Northwest, from the intensifying pollen and allergen seasons with increasing heat and carbon dioxide in the air to the more dramatic and catastrophic wildfires and heat domes.
Those who care for children as their full-time jobs see this impact even more clearly than I do. I always find pediatricians helpful and inspiring- most pediatricians I meet are both some of the kindest people as well as most intelligent doctors, and they deal with patients who change so much more over the course of their care then I see in adult medicine.
Two amazing pediatric pulmonologists (aka lung doctors for kids) joined me on the podcast to review what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about climate change and kids, and more importantly, what we can do.
Dr Anne Coates is a pediatric pulmonologist in the Maine Medical Partners Pediatric Specialty Care practice. Her expertise is in asthma, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, childhood lung diseases related to e-cigarette use and interstitial lung disease and has a strong interest in physician advocacy. She teaches the next generation training in pediatric medicine at Maine Medical Center and is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Tufts University School of Medicine..
Dr. Coates graduated from the University of Vermont Larner School of Medicine in 2007. She completed her residency at the University of Massachusetts in 2010 and fellowship at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2013. She is the mother of four children and loves hiking, running, cooking and exploring all food-related activities around Maine.
Dr. Christy Sadreameli is the mother of two boys and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is co-director of the Childhood Interstitial and Diffuse Lung Disease and Immunologic Disorders Clinic. She cares for children with a range of lung diseases, including asthma, pulmonary complications of sickle cell disease, childhood interstitial lung disease, aerodigestive disorders, and more. She does clinical research in the impact of environmental factors on children with sickle cell disease, asthma, including implementation and outcomes associated with stock bronchodilator programs, and a novel lung condition associated with a genetic mutation in platelet-derived growth factor alpha.
Dr. Sadreameli attended the Medical University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Charleston, South Carolina. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and her fellowship in pediatric pulmonology and master of health sciences at Johns Hopkins. She is chair of the pediatric advocacy subcommittee for ATS and is a volunteer national media spokesperson for the American Lung Association.
We cover how climate change affects kids from premature delivery increasing the risk of developing lung disease, to air pollution on kids, to increased temperatures and CO2 affecting pollen seasons to heat events, flooding, mold and more. They are also seeing more infectious diseases spreading, such as the territory for Lyme disease and other pathogens. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a holistic approach to help kids thrive in the midst of all of this.
Most importantly, as parents, we all know we can’t just let these challenges to our kids’ health go without trying to make the future better. Often when we read the news, we may get the impression that nobody else cares as much about tackling the climate crisis as we do, but actually most parents in our country and around the world are worried about the impacts of climate change and want to take steps to address it.
Take a listen to the podcast to learn more about how climate change is affecting the future of kids on the planet and how you can help kids in your own life and also how you can speak up for their futures.
– You can learn more about how to keep your family healthy during things like wildfire events from “Our Health in Wildfire Season” episode
– You can learn about how pollen is changing with climate change from the episode “Science over Politics.”
– Learn about heat events and how to stay safe from the “Heat Kills” episode with Professor Ollie Jay
– Learn what you can do from the “Clean air and Climate Advocacy for Busy People” episode or the “”Bypass Toxic Politics” episode or “Your Little Grain of Sand” with Mom’s Clean Air Force
– Finally, consider a donation to the American Lung Association, who is working for clean air and a stable climate for all our kids.
TLDR= Don't Light Things on Fire and Breathe them into your Lungs
References-
Ahdoot S et al. Climate Change and Children’s Health: Building a Healthy Future for Every Child. Pediatrics. 2024 Mar 1;153(3):e2023065504. Source of image above
Image for post by Heike Mintel on Unsplash
