Threats of Climate Change to Children’s Health and Equity: Solutions Now

Air pollution and climate change due largely to fossil fuel emissions are affecting children’s health and brain development in multiple ways. All children are at risk, but the burden of ill health and impairment falls unequally on children in communities of color and low-income communities. Solutions exist but must be implemented in ways that address climate and environmental injustice. Several examples of the child health benefits of current policies will be reviewed.

Frederica P. Perera is a professor of environmental health sciences and the founding director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health. She heads the Translational Research Program at the Center. Dr. Perera is internationally recognized for pioneering the field of molecular epidemiology, utilizing biomarkers to understand links between environmental exposures and disease. For many years she and her colleagues have been carrying out longitudinal cohort studies of pregnant women and their children, with the goal of identifying preventable environmental risk factors for adverse birth outcomes, developmental disorders, asthma, and obesity in childhood and adolescence. Her recent research is addressing the multiple impacts on children’s health and neurodevelopment of fossil fuel combustion — both from the toxic pollutants emitted and climate change related to CO2 emissions. She is the author of over 350 publications and has received numerous honors.

This event is part of the fall 2021 Climate & Health Seminar Series, in collaboration with the USC Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute and Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center.