Newswise — WASHINGTON (March 11, 2016) — Anticipating the World Health Organization’s report on health and environmental impacts (expected March 15), Georgetown professor Laura Anderko, PhD, RN, points out that environmental harms unfairly impact the most vulnerable people in the world.
Anderko is available to discuss specifics of the WHO report.
Anderko is director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at Georgetown, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative (with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency) focusing on environmental risks that impact children.
“Social justice dictates that we work with the poor and their communities whose well-being is disproportionately impacted by environmental harms. These include food and water shortages caused by climate change, weather disasters, poor air quality and severe heat,” says Anderko. “Many of these factors impose significantly greater risks for associated health issues including asthma, allergies, heart attacks and stress disorders.”
Anderko, the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Chair in Values Based Health Care at Georgetown’s School of Nursing & Health Studies, has dedicated her life’s work to environmental and social justice — and the intersection of the two.
“Climate change is a moral issue. Sustainable development must include strategies that address not only economic prosperity, but inclusion of the poor and vulnerable, and protection of the natural world,” she says.
Anderko is a scholar and educator in the fields of epidemiology, public health and environmental health. She has served on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee research workgroup and the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee.
To schedule an interview with Anderko, please contact Karen Teber at [email protected].
About Georgetown University Medical CenterGeorgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization, which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical and Translational Science Award (UL1TR001409-01) from the National Institutes of Health.
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