NIH’s Climate and Health Initiative tackles global health effects associated with a changing climate

Media Availability

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.

 

NOTE FOR REPORTERS: This commentary is under embargo until 7:30 p.m. EDT on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

Comment pieces are written by experts in the field, and represent their own views, rather than necessarily the views of The Lancet or any Lancet specialty journal. Unlike Articles containing original research, not all Comments are externally peer reviewed.

 

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit https://www.nih.gov.