September 23, 2021
by Vi Thuy Nguyen MD
Yesterday, three pediatricians from our leadership team Drs. Dan Spencer, Sally Kaufman and myself testified at the Encinitas City Council meeting and made public comments at an earlier press conference along other environmental groups at Encinitas City Hall. We spoke along with our colleages from the Public Health Advisory Council, Climate Actions Campaign but also as the leadership team from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Climate Change and Health Committee and San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air.
We gave public testimony regarding a “Green Building” city ordinance that would require new buildings to be powered by clean electricity and not methane (“natural”) gas. This passed yesterday unanimously by the Encinitas City Council. Methane gas is a potent green house gas with 100x the impact of other green house gases that accelerate climate change. It has been well established in the medical literature that climate change, the resulting air pollution, and also simple methane from gas stoves which is indoor air pollution are worsening pediatric asthma and adding to increased incidence (the number of kids with asthma) and also severity (how bad their asthma is). In fact, three of the physicians who gave public testiomy yesterday work in the field of pediatric asthma. Drs. Dan Spencer and myself have been working together on pediatric asthma quality metrics for over a decade. Dr. Christine James is part of the Public Health Advisory Council, Climate Actions Campaign is an allergist and academic physician at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Our testimoy and advocacy yesterday was in line with the The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement on global climate change and children’s health which declared that “failure to take prompt, substantive action [on climate change] would be an act of injustice to all children.” The statement called for pediatricians as a profession to “advocate for local, national, and international policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and for the U.S. to employ adaptation strategies that improve preparedness for anticipated climate-associated effects. Pediatricians should educate elected officials on the risk that climate change poses to child health, provide expert testimony at public hearings, and “help build a broader coalition across disciplines to address climate change at the local and national levels.”
And yesterday that is what we did. Dr. Dan Spencer spoke from his place as a pediatric asthma doctor and as a leader of a Pediatric After Hours Clinic, where he often sees the sickest pediatric patients for asthma exacerbations. He spoke of the reality of worsening pediatric respiratory health, and the contributions of air pollution and in particular wildfire smoke to recent worsening of pediatric asthma. The Pediatric ICU beds are filled in San Diego, he let us know. We are transporting kids right now to the LA and Fontana areas. Drs. Sally Kaufman and Christine James spoke from their places as physicians but also as expectant mothers and their hope for the children they care for, and also their own.
And yesterday at the press event, I spoke to the media which did not cover our words but did repeatedly mention the words of SDGE and fossil fuel industrial compex. I guess in the mainstream media the words of SDGE count for more than pediatricians who care for children. This is often the case, because children cannot vote and they do not have money. As pediatricians, we are climate advocates but most importantly we are child advocates.
But here I want to let our patients and our community know that we did speak up and Mayor Blakespear and all the city council members acknowledged our words and they heard us. My words are below,
Climate change is a public health crisis, and for pediatricians – it’s a pediatric public health crisis. You see, kids are different than adults. They are smaller and have a greater body-to-surface ratio of their lung epithelium and vital organs. And growing fetuses and growing children have still developing vital organs – and this simple fact makes them more vulnerable to pollution and heat. 80% of the diseases that are on the rise due to climate change effect children, especially those under 5. Dr. Bruce Bekkar was the lead author in a study in JAMA that demonstrated climate change is leading babies to be born more premature and smaller.
So what’s at stake today? If you don’t act, more premature babies, smaller babies, babies with small heads, more pediatric asthma, worse pediatric asthma, more heart attacks for adults. That’s why doctors are here today. Medicine is no longer just practiced in our clinic, but here at city hall by trying to prevent these diseases. We are urging you to vote YES on to electrifing buildings. Please vote YES for women and children. Please vote YES for our planet. The doctors today, we did our part. We showed up. I hope the Encinitas City Council does their part by passing this ordinance.
And the Encinitas City Council did pass the ordinance. They are the first city in the San Diego region and the 50th in the country to do so. The implications of this vote are vital to giving our region a chance at meeting GHG targets, and also will have reverberating effects in our region and hopefully the country. Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for about 25 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions when accounting for fossil fuels consumed onsite and electricity demand.
The combined membership of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air and the AAP San Diego Climate Change and Health Committee want to extend our thanks to Mayor Catherine Blakespear, Encinitas City Councilmember Joe Mosca and the other members of the Encinitas City Council. Thank you for acknowledging and listening to us, and thinking about children’s health when you made that crucial vote last night. As pediatricians, we thank you for voting for the kids and the earth last night.
