UWaterloo students from the faculty of Engineering and Environment hosted a recent webinar presented by the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3) and Faculty of Health. The webinar “The impacts of climate change on public health: Opportunities to mitigate risk” was held on February 10, 2021.
Speakers include:
- Emma Blackburn (MASc Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Kelvin Vianini (MASc Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Nadwa Elbadri (MASc Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Omar Sadab Chowdhury (MASc Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Anika Tasnim Hossain (MDP Candidate, Development Practice).
The students led an informative discussion about the impacts of climate change on public health and covered a range of topics including how climate change can increase the risk of human exposure to microplastics, the nutrient loading to surface water from wastewater effluents, the risk of consuming unsafe drinking water in rural, remote, and marginalized communities; and, the risk of microbial health exposures facing agricultural migrant farm workers.
The student panelists explored risk management approaches for mitigation of these public health impacts through the development of frameworks and best management practices, exploring transmission pathways of disease, and implementation of green technologies.