NIH leaders plan to address the threat of climate change to human health

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 4 2022

What

Leaders from the National Institutes of Health discuss the agency's plan to address the risk to human health posed by a changing climate in a commentary published in The Lancet. As floods, hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, and heat waves become more extreme, the risk to human health grows, exacerbating existing health threats and creating new public health challenges around the world.

The authors, a coalition of leaders at NIH, outline how the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative is uniquely poised to lead and engage with communities and agencies globally to address the health effects associated with climate change.

Article

The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative and Strategic Framework: addressing the threat of climate change to health. The Lancet, November 2022. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)02163-8/fulltext

Who

The following NIH leaders are available for interviews:

• Richard P. Woychik, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He is the lead author on The Lancet commentary, and the chair of the Executive Committee leading the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative.
• Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
• Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Fogarty International Center.
• Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health
• Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., director of the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.