USC EH MATTERS Fellow Zainab Hasan, Global Health '22, recently completed work on a valuable infographic based handout under the mentorship of faculty member Erika Garcia.

"Zainab was a major contributor to this piece as part of her EH MATTERS internship. She, along with another student (Lauren Wong, working under Sharon Chinthrajah at Stanford), developed most of the context for the handout and often lead revisions, including incorporation of everyone’s comments, including Education Committee members at the American Thoracic Society, said Erika Garcia, Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

"Developing this patient education sheet was an incredible learning experience for me," said Zainab Hasan. Not only did I learn more about the various ways in which climate change affects human health and what factors can make a person more susceptible to these health effects, but I learned how to disseminate this important information to a general audience. This is a very useful skill in scientific communication. I also really enjoyed working in a group of students and faculty who are passionate about public health. I learned how a team like us can put our unique skills and knowledge together to create a useful product that can help others. The public health impacts of climate change are an area of study I am very interested in and I am currently doing my thesis related to this topic as well, so I am very excited to contribute more to the field!" 

The two page handout includes sections that answer questions including: Who is Most Vulnerable to the Health Effects of Climate Change? and What Can I do to Avoid Health Problems From Climate Change?

The following list of climate change resources are included in the handout as well:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Climate Effects on Health
“Preparing for the Regional Health Impacts of Climate Change in
the United States.”
American Lung Association
Climate Change and Lung Health
American Thoracic Society
Patient Resources

Chinthrajah, S., Garcia, E., Hasan, Z., Hy, A., & Wong, L. (2022). Climate Change Health Effects and What You Can Do. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 205(1), P1–P2. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.2051P1

The grant that supported the time and effort put into this graphic: NIEHS Grant #R25ES031867