Talking about Environmental Public Health with Kristian James, –  Principal Environmental Public Health Scientist

With it being climate change awareness week, I thought that perhaps it would feel like preaching to the choir, so I have something a little different. 

 Other PHW members who might have had this information in stereo, though its with great pleasure to share a snippet of one of my colleagues role who I got to know during the pandemic. 

As an organisation, Public Health Wales play a critical role in tackling the public health effects of climate change – outlined as priority six in the Long-Term Strategy.

Teams across the organisation are using their knowledge, expertise, and data-driven evidence to advise and work with other stakeholders on UK-wide legislation, policies and guidance, including the ongoing UK climate change risk assessment process. One of these teams is the Environmental Public Health Service and one of the members is  Kristian James, Principal Environmental Public Health Scientist.

“One of our most notable areas of work is to provide public health advice on extreme weather. The team traditionally responds to adverse or extreme weather events, as well as flooding, where sometimes we’re called to help Local Resilience Fora (LRF). To support planning for these types of event, we also provide responses to external Town and Country Planning consultations and speak about health risks at events aimed at local volunteer groups or fora.”

“However, our most recent work has been developing responses to a wider range of weather-related hazards including drought, wildfires and storms due to a changing climate and the impacts on Wales. One high level project is Dawns Glaw, a multi-agency taskforce committed to reduce, and where possible eliminate, the impact of grass fires across Wales. We have also contributed to the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of drought and water scarcity as a case study for Public Health Wales’ HIA on climate change which featured case studies from as far as North America.”

“For the summer months, we published new guidance on staying safe in outdoor waters and supported the development of guidance to manage harmful blue green algal blooms often associated with warm sunny weather.”

“As well as playing an official advisory role, members of our team guest lecture on climate change and health on the Master’s in Public Health (MPH) programme at Cardiff University.”

So, what’s next for the Environmental Public Health Service?

“We are working on many different projects but to name one – we’re beginning a project working with other stakeholders exploring the risk to the many private water supplies in Wales posed by climate change.”

While some of us think of the health impacts of climate change, it was fascinating to hear form Kristian about the impacts climate change has had on housing, water and air quality.

What activities have you been involved in this week and what are you hoping to engage with in the future?