Climate change represents the greatest public health challenge of the 21st century, but mitigating climate change represents the greatest public health opportunity.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Environmental Health Sciences: In Conversation with the Yale School of Public Health Chair
As the global population continues to grow and encounters increasingly limited resources, strained ecosystems, and climate change, environmental health is emerging as a dominant concern in the 21st century. Pollution has become a leading cause of death -- resulting in over 9 million deaths per year.
In this video, Vasilis Vasiliou, Environmental Health Sciences Department Chair at the Yale School of Public Health, discusses the department's work to assess and eliminate the risks of chemical exposures, address the health impacts of climate change, and more.
"I’m a big fan of collaboration," says Vasiliou. "I think this is the uniqueness of our department. We’re very good at connecting the department not only with the other departments within the School of Public Health, but also with other schools at Yale. Then also we collaborate with state agencies, with the community. So it’s very important not only for our department, our faculty, to be in touch with them, but also to pass this kind of mentality to our students. How as scientists how we do the community engagement. How we listen to the community that tell us what are their concerns, and direct our research towards that."
Areas of Interest
Climate change and energy impacts on health Developmental origin of health and disease Environmental exposures during early life (particularly the in-utero period) can permanently influence health and vulnerability to disease.Green chemistry solutions An approach to redesign materials that form the basis of our society and our economy in ways that are benign for humans and the environment.Environmental justice and health disparities Communities of socioeconomic disadvantage are more likely to be exposed to harmful pollutants.Novel approaches to assess environmental exposures and early markers of effect EHS is a leader in mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, epigenomic/epigenetic tools, genomic instability, wearable air pollutant monitors and meta-research.
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