Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/1076154
56 | January 2019 son began collecting and distributing early literacy books for kids on other parts of the island of Puerto Rico. Can you explain the connection between climate change and diseases like Zika? Because of the warming climate the distribution of pests like mosquitoes increases, which means you, find a species over a wider area of land. Also, the life cycle of the Egypti mosqui- toes that carry diseases like Zika is actually shortening. All of this leads to more mosquitoes and more mosquitos borne ill- ness. In the case of Puerto Rico it's hard to say what has hap- pened with mosquito populations since the hurricane. Some people thought that the hurricane disrupted the population and it had decreased, but recent surveillance actually shows that we have lots of mosquitoes. Overall, climate change is exac- erbating environmental health concerns because of changes in populations of disease carrying pests like mosquitoes, and also because it causes natural disasters like hurricanes to be more intense and more frequent. What can parents do to advance awareness? First, it's important to learn about how our environment impacts the health of ourselves and our kids. And when I talk about the environment in this way I don't just mean chemical spills — it's our social environment, and everything we interact with. There are many great resources online to help with this learning. We also need to share what we learn with our elected offi- cials. Voting isn't enough — we need to educate them about the needs in our community. In 2014 another parent and I went to the Puerto Rican legislature to share information about in- tegrated pest management with them, as concerned parents. It didn't really make a big impact so we will go back again. Speaking up one time isn't really effective most of the time — it takes persistence to help our elected officials learn about our concerns regarding our children's health and find the will to act on these concerns. Also, when we collaborate with our elected officials we are showing our kids the power of advocacy to improve our communities. How can parents make sure the EPA and federal policies are protecting their kids? As parents we know what kids need, we have to help the government understand what is important to our families. It's a duty for parents to raise a voice in a science-based manner. We need to ask questions of federal leaders. One way to frame these questions is to say, "We think this policy impacts kids. Can you help us understand what the impact will be?" And go from there. We have to teach our kids to speak up for themselves by modeling this in our engagement with government policies. LEARN MORE ABOUT ZIKA HERE