APHA’s 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo convened in Atlanta to help move communities forward in the race to prepare for, adapt to and prevent the health effects of climate change.
About 12,000 public health professionals from around the world — public health workers, students, teachers, advocates, scientists and supporters — traveled to the Georgia capital for the Association’s Annual Meeting, which ran Nov. 4-8 and had a theme of “Creating the Healthiest Nation: Climate Changes Health.” The 2017 Annual Meeting represented the capstone of APHA’s Year of Climate Change and Health, which worked to bring human health concerns to the forefront of national climate change discussions and help public health workers do the same locally.
The Annual Meeting’s hundreds of sessions and events ran the gamut on climate change, from the latest science on its health risks to the innovative climate work now happening inside state and local public health agencies. But regardless of the particular topic, one major thread weaved its way throughout much of the meeting’s climate discussions: the relationship between climate change, environmental justice and health equity.