Climate Change

Cecilia MartindaleMS, Environmental Health SciencesHometownColorado Springs, COFuture plansPursuing a PhD in environmental health and working in public health practice.“We really need to consider how climate change is impacting environmental health hazards.”

People love talking about the weather, but what they like talking less about is why certain weather patterns exist. That’s something Joan Casey has observed as a scientist who studies climate change’s impact on communities. 

As a planning coordinator, Meg Hamele works to prepare Seattle for the inevitable public health crises that will arise if and when a disaster strikes the city. But her career evolved from a much simpler everyday annoyance — grocery shopping.

Whether it’s a blizzard, a heat wave or a wildfire, severe weather is often quickly followed by a power outage.  As demonstrated in the recent Los Angeles wildfires, these combined events can be associated with major economic costs and health risks. Loss of power can disrupt medical equipment, heating or air conditioning, and other important systems.  

This new year comes with four new faculty for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).They bring expertise in addressing how emerging environmental exposures and social disparities influence a broad range of health concerns, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, fertility, birth outcomes, vector-borne disease and microbial exposure.

The impacts of climate change on human health are severe: Extreme heat events put stress on the body, increasing the risk of heat stroke, hospitalization for heart disease, kidney failure and poor mental health. In the U.S., deaths due to extreme heat increased 117% from 1999 to 2023.

For the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS), 2024 was a year of behind-the-scenes change, as we thanked Professor Michael Yost for his 10-year tenure as department chair and welcomed

Dr. Jeremy Hess, UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) professor and climate researcher, knows how prolonged heat exposure can impact the body.

This summer, I embraced the UW EarthLab’s mission to “push the boundaries” as an EarthLab intern with the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE).

Explore a storymap about climate resilience in the Duwamish ValleyMore than a century ago, Seattle leaders set out to control and redirect the Duwamish River. They dredged the riverbed and dug out its twists and turns.

Maegan ChuaBS in Environmental Public HealthHometownKetchikan, AKInternship with:Public Health – Seattle & King County

At the end of this month, Michael Yost will be stepping down after a 10-year term as chair of the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

In the past several months, researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and their partners have received four awards from the UW Population Health Initiative to pursue research on the health impacts of emerging threats including extreme cold, sea level rise, extreme heat combined with wil

More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western US are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, according to a new study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the UW and six other institutions. Some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future could be in the path of fires worsened by climate change. 

Joey TeresiMS, Environmental Health SciencesHometownChannahon, ILFuture plansAn environmental health or public health career in the public sector.“I’ve been lucky to have advisers in DEOHS that help me set lofty goals and meet those goals.”- Joey Teresi

Hannah McKinleyBS, Environmental HealthHometownSnohomish, WAFuture plansPursuing an MPH in DEOHS and an MPA in the UW Evans School.“I feel very lucky to have found a place to explore so many of my academic interests.”- Hannah McKinley

Assistant Professor Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen joined the UW last year with a joint appointment in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and the Department of Urban Design and Planning (UDP) in the College of Built Environments.

2023 has been a year of community resilience for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS). Together with many partners, our students, faculty and staff spearheaded projects to help Pacific Northwest communities respond and adapt to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke and other impacts of climate change.

Explore the storymap In the fall of 2022, our team of researchers from the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, the Duwamish River Community Coalition (DRCC), the City of Seattle and the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences went door to door in the Se

The University of Washington’s new Center for Disaster Resilient Communities (CDRC) will lead the development of a new workplan for a regional public health emergency preparedness and response center to help prepare the Northwest for disasters and emergencies.

University of Washington School of Public Health faculty member Kristie Ebi was recently elected as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Read the full UW news release Changes in our environment are creating new challenges: new disease patterns, threats to mental health, malnutrition and unpredictable natural disasters.

Breathing wildfire smoke poses a health risk to people of all ages, not just young children and older adults, according to new research from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and colleagues at Seattle Children’s.

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