The Health Impacts of the Wildfires

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Sarah Henderson is the scientific director of environmental health services at Canada's British Columbia Center for Disease Control. Wildfire smoke is a form of air pollution, and we know from tens of thousands of studies that air pollution is not good for human health. We need to start thinking about resourcing this question of climate change, individual health, and public health in a way that is commensurate with the risk," she says.

Earlier in June 2023, a series of wildfires across Quebec, Canada blanketed eastern North America in smoke. In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we speak to three scientists about how climate change is exacerbating hazards like these wildfires, and to understand how an event like this impacts health, business and the economy.

We talk to Werner Kurz, senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada, about how wildfires can impact net-zero goals.

We speak with Terry Thompson, Chief Climate Scientist at the Climate Center of Excellence at S&P Global Sustainable1. He talks to us about the financial impacts of wildfires.

And to understand the health impacts of climate change broadly and wildfires specifically, we interview Sarah Henderson, Scientific Director of Environmental Health Services at Canada’s British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, and at the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health.

Photo source: Getty Images

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