Introduction
Dr. Etzel is an internationally-known pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist. She is the founding editor of Pediatric Environmental Health, an influential book that has helped thousands of doctors to better recognize, diagnose, treat and prevent illness in children from environmental pollution. From 2009 to 2012 she led the World Health Organization’s activities to protect children from environmental hazards. She worked for 12 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she founded and directed the Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. She conducted investigations of numerous epidemics, including outbreaks of sudden deaths in Sierra Leone due to parathion poisoning and of sudden deaths in Guatemala from paralytic shellfish poisoning. She designed and oversaw studies that identified the cause of epidemic asthma in Barcelona and New Orleans, as well as investigations of the health effects of exposure to serious air pollution in Central and Eastern Europe and Mexico City. She was sent to Kuwait immediately after the cessation of hostilities in 1991 to determine the health impact of the more than 750 oil well fires burning near Kuwait City.
Notably, Dr. Etzel performed the first study to document that children with secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke had measurable exposure to nicotine. Her pioneering work led to nationwide efforts to reduce indoor exposure to tobacco, including the ban on smoking in US airliners. She discovered the link between exposure to water-damaged, moldy homes and fatal infant pulmonary hemorrhage, for which she received the Clinical Society Award from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Association.
In 2007 the U.S. EPA honored Dr. Etzel with the Children’s Environmental Health Champion Award for outstanding leadership in protecting children from environmental health risks. She received the Distinguished Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service, the Don C. Mackel Memorial Award from the CDC, and the prestigious Arthur S. Flemming Award. She is a courageous leader in bringing environmental health risks to public attention and working collaboratively towards solutions. For her persistence in speaking truth to power, she is known as an “inconvenient” pediatrician.
Expert
Dr. Etzel is an internationally-known pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist. She is the founding editor of Pediatric Environmental Health, an influential book that has helped thousands of doctors to better recognize, diagnose, treat and prevent illness in children from environmental pollution. From 2009 to 2012 she led the World Health Organization’s activities to protect children from environmental hazards. She worked for 12 years at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she founded and directed the Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. She conducted investigations of numerous epidemics, including outbreaks of sudden deaths in Sierra Leone due to parathion poisoning and of sudden deaths in Guatemala from paralytic shellfish poisoning. She designed and oversaw studies that identified the cause of epidemic asthma in Barcelona and New Orleans, as well as investigations of the health effects of exposure to serious air pollution in Central and Eastern Europe and Mexico City. She was sent to Kuwait immediately after the cessation of hostilities in 1991 to determine the health impact of the more than 750 oil well fires burning near Kuwait City.
Notably, Dr. Etzel performed the first study to document that children with secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke had measurable exposure to nicotine. Her pioneering work led to nationwide efforts to reduce indoor exposure to tobacco, including the ban on smoking in US airliners. She discovered the link between exposure to water-damaged, moldy homes and fatal infant pulmonary hemorrhage, for which she received the Clinical Society Award from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Association.
In 2007 the U.S. EPA honored Dr. Etzel with the Children’s Environmental Health Champion Award for outstanding leadership in protecting children from environmental health risks. She received the Distinguished Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service, the Don C. Mackel Memorial Award from the CDC, and the prestigious Arthur S. Flemming Award. She is a courageous leader in bringing environmental health risks to public attention and working collaboratively towards solutions. For her persistence in speaking truth to power, she is known as an “inconvenient” pediatrician.
Fields of expertise: Environmental policy / climate change, Health and wellbeing, Housing, Social change / social transformations, Youth