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KPHD interim health officer supports water fluoridation at low levels

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that protects teeth from tooth decay. Generally, all water contains some naturally occurring fluoride, but not enough to prevent tooth decay, which has led many communities to add additional fluoride to the water to combat tooth decay. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he intends to push for removal of fluoride from the public water supplies across the country, calling it an “industrial waste.” Dr.

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Bill Gates calls for climate fight to shift focus from curbing emissions to reducing human suffering

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Bill Gates calls for a “strategic pivot” in the global climate fight: from focusing on limiting rising temperatures to fighting poverty and preventing disease. University of Washington public health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi agrees with Gates that the U.N. negotiations should focus on improving human health and well-being, but thinks it's unlikely that changing one variable will curb climate change.

 

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The Republican Plan to Reform the Census Could Put Everyone’s Privacy at Risk

In recent weeks, the GOP has set its sights on getting rid of an algorithmic process called "differential privacy", which was created to keep census data from being used to identify individual respondents. According to research by Abraham Flaxman, associate professor of global health and of health metrics sciences at the UW, this could mean that someone could use census data without differential privacy to identify transgender youth. 

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The world is heading to add 57 superhot days a year, but study indicates it could have been worse

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The world is on track to add nearly two months of dangerous superhot days each year by the end of the century a study released Thursday found. University of Washington public health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi, who wasn’t part of Thursday’s report, says that other groups are also finding more than hundreds of thousands of deaths from recent heat waves in peer-reviewed research with much of it because of human-caused climate change.

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Climate Activists Cite Health Hazards in Bid To Stop Trump From ‘Unleashing’ Fossil Fuels

A group of young people are suing the Trump administration to block the president's executive orders "unleashing" American energy, claiming the health effects of fossil fuels violate their Fifth Amendment rights. Kristie Ebi, professor of global health and environmental and occupational health sciences at UW, shares how the health effects of a warming world are established in scientific literature. 

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Well-preserved Amazon rainforest on Indigenous lands can protect people from diseases, study finds

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A new study in the journal Communications Earth & Environment finds that instances of several diseases were lowered in areas where forest was set aside for Indigenous peoples who maintained it well. Kristie Ebi, professor of global health, highlights the complexity of factors that affect human health, and the importance of understanding the role Indigenous communities play in shaping it.

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

Global warming in the United States is amping up the country’s sweet tooth, a new study found. When the temperature rises, Americans — especially those with less money and education — drink lots more sugary beverages and a bit more frozen desserts. But University of Washington health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi, who wasn’t part of the research, said as temperatures increase with human-caused climate change “there will be other issues of more importance than a small increase in sugary beverages.”

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Kids from Marginalized Communities Are Learning in the Hottest Classrooms

The first national study of its kind shows that children from marginalized communities are more exposed to extreme heat events. This effect means school authorities in affected areas must be especially careful in monitoring temperature changes, says Kristie Ebi, a professor of global health at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington. 

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Scientists Denounce Trump Administration’s Climate Report

Scores of researchers reviewed the Energy Department’s argument about greenhouse gases and found serious deficiencies. The Trump administration’s report highlighted the work of Kristie Ebi, a global health professor at the University of Washington, as proof that dietary supplements would help combat nutrient loss from plants in a warmer world. But Dr. Ebi said her research did not make that claim.

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In a Hotter World, Some People Age Faster, Researchers Find

Exposure to heat waves over just two years could add up to 12 extra days of age-related health damage. “The results may have implications for public health interventions,” said Dr. Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington, noting that there are ways that governments can intervene to protect people in a warming world.

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