CDC Environmental Health Nexus Newsletter
Healthy Environment, Healthy You
March 15, 2022 | Volume 8
Environmental News Nexus
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Environmental Health Nexus (EH Nexus) shares environmental health messages with the public and gives special attention to environmental justice.
EH Nexus newsletters provide information about environmental health issues and offer information that promotes actions to help save lives. The newsletters communicate how to reduce harm from many threats, including climate change, contaminated food and water, toxic environments, and inadequate systems and practices.
This issue covers the following topics:
- EH Nexus Webinar on Climate Change and Health
- CDC’s Chemical Demilitarization Program Celebrates 39 Years
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EH Nexus Webinar with on Climate Change and Health
Climate change influences human health and diseases, but not everyone is equally at risk. The next EH Nexus webinar will be a collaboration with CDC and Prevention and Health Resources and Service Administration on Climate Change and Health.
Subject matter experts will discuss how healthcare providers as well as state, tribal, local, and territorial agencies can prepare for the health impacts of a changing climate by developing and implementing adaptation plans to protect under-resourced communities.
Upon the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to
- List public health impacts of climate change.
- Discuss activities supported by CDC’s Climate and Health Program to build resilience to these public health effects.
- Identify potential effects of climate change on the U.S. health care system.
- Provide specific examples of how climate change affects healthcare facilities and their patients, especially disproportionately affected groups.
Registerexternal icon for this event. Closed captioning will be available.
Visit the Environmental Health Nexus website for more details.
CDC’s Chemicals Demilitarization Program Celebrates 39 Years
The Chemical Demilitarization (Chem Demil) program was officially established in August of 1983. The program provides independent oversight to the U.S. Army’s chemical weapons elimination program and serves as an important element in ensuring the safe destruction of chemical warfare material for protection of public health.
The program spent time with the Army and contractors evaluating and providing guidance for
- Medical and emergency response efforts
- Job and system hazards analysis
- Work involving encapsulated protective chemical agent suits
- Laboratory sampling and analysis
- Chemical agent monitoring
- Safety and health programs
- Other processes involving safety and health interaction.
The Elimination of Chemical Warfare Agents
Chemical warfare agents at seven of the nine chemical disposal facility sites have been destroyed, resulting in destruction of more than 27,000 tons (90%) of America’s original stockpiled chemical weapons. Those facilities were destroyed and closed.
Two remaining facilities, the Blue Grass facility in Richmond, KY and the Pueblo facility in Pueblo, CO, are continuing this important work with a goal of complete elimination of these weapons by 2023.
The Army and Department of Defense are on target to complete destruction of the remaining chemical agent warfare material in storage by 2023. This will mark the end of an almost 40-year effort to destroy the chemical agent stockpile and eliminate the risk of a release of munitions stored for over 60 years. This effort has been unprecedented.
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