BUFFALO, N.Y. – Think beyond the infant in your arms. That’s the call to action a University at Buffalo epidemiologist is stressing in a new line of research investigating the long-term effects climate change is likely to have on birthing parents and future generations.“Much of the work happening around reproductive health is based on short-term support and services for families, and that’s very important work. But we need to think beyond the immediate goal of a healthy infant in our arms and address the long-term implications of climate change on reproductive health,” says Pauline Mendola, PhD, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.Mendola is a co-author on a recent paper in the journal Fertility and Sterility with Sandie Ha, PhD, of the University of California, Merced, that outlines some of the ways in which climate-related events will influence the risks of long-term health impacts for birthing parents and multiple generations of offspring.“We can already observe climate-related effects on reproductive health and we are only at the beginning of the anticipated declines associated with continued global warming and increased frequency of extreme events,” they write.When people think about how climate change will impact their lives, their concerns typically center on things like more frequent and intense storms, wildfires and melting glaciers. But an increasing amount of research is …
How climate change is likely to worsen reproductive health for generations – University at Buffalo
