On Saturday, September 21, 2019, leading experts on the public health effects of global warming and climate change will discuss climate-related mental health impacts, heat wave deaths, respiratory diseases, epidemics, flooding, and more in a free public workshop program in Morgantown, West Virginia titled “Climate Change and Public Health: Addressing the Growing Crisis.”
The program will be held from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM, at the West Virginia University College of Law Event Hall in Morgantown, WV. Registration is free and includes a buffet luncheon at 12:00 noon. To register, visit https://saveblackwater.org/west-virginia-center-on-climate-change/climate-change-and-public-health. Continuing Education credits for certified public health professionals (5 CPH-CE hours) are available.
The program is organized by the West Virginia University College of Law Center for Energy and Sustainable Development and the West Virginia Center on Climate Change, cooperating with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center. For more information, contact Logan Thorne, Director of the Center at 304-657-5455 or logan.thorne.LT@gmail.com.
“In approaching Global Climate Change, we need to go beyond sorting out the economic and political winners and losers,” said Dr. Bernard Goldstein, keynote presenter. “In our country, as in the rest of the world, the health impact of Global Climate Change will fall particularly on children, the elderly, those with pre-existing health conditions, and those without the resources to adequately protect themselves from the forthcoming changes. We need to apply to Global Climate Change the old public health adage of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. In public health practice we distinguish between primary prevention, in which the potential health risk is completely avoided, and secondary prevention in which early detection leads to lessening the impact of the continuing risk. For Global Climate Change we need both.”
The current list of scheduled speakers includes Keynote Presenter, Dr. Bernard D. Goldstein, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health, and former Dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health; Dr. Lise Van Susteren, M.D., Board Certified General and Forensic Psychiatrist, Washington, DC, Former Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Department of Psychiatry; Dr. Susan Clayton, Ph.D., Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology and Chair of Environmental Studies, College of Wooster, Fellow, American Psychological Association; Dr. Daniel Barnett, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health & Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Dr. Luann Brink, Ph.D., Chief Epidemiologist, Allegheny County (PA) Health Department; Patrice Tomcik, Project Manager, Moms Clean Air Force; Ashley Ward, Ph.D., Senior Policy Associate, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University; Dr. Nicolas Zegre, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Hydrology, WVU, Director, WVU Mountain Hydrology Laboratory; Shana Udvardy, Climate Resilience Analyst, Climate & Energy Program, Union of Concerned Scientists; and Dr. Robert Duval, Ph.D., Professor of Health Policy, Management, and Leadership, WVU School of Public Health.