Compounding Injustice: How Cascading Climate Hazards Amplify Health Disparities
Climate change does not affect populations equally. Low-income and historically marginalized communities face a triple jeopardy: higher cumulative environmental exposures, worse health outcomes for the same level of exposure due to increased susceptibility and reduced adaptive capacity to respond effectively. Yet climate-health research has predominantly focused on single hazards (e.g. heat, wildfire smoke, flooding), analyzed in isolation, masking how real-world compound and cascading climate exposures may systematically amplify health inequalities. This presentation will describe how co-occurring, sequential, and preconditioned climate exposures interact with demographic, socioeconomic, and territorial vulnerabilities to drive health disparities. We will also discuss how to consider compounded climate events for adaptation strategies. Understanding these layered, intersectional vulnerabilities while considering a compounded framework is essential for designing equitable adaptation strategies that protect those most at risk and dismantle the structural drivers of climate-related health injustice. more info...
This session provides a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of AI in research, beginning with a foundational overview of current technology. We will then cover a mix of practical productivity—using AI agents to automate everyday tasks—and an updated (from last year’s webinars) technical workflow for environmental epidemiology. Attendees will learn how these tools can unify the entire research process, from literature review to manuscript drafting. Presented by Jonah Lipsitt, PhD, MSc more info...
The goal of this conference is to bring together environmental health and epidemiologic scholars, practitioners, and government personnel located in North America to network with potential new collaborators. The 2026 meeting will also allow students and trainees to interact with prospective mentors and supervisors and present their work in a public forum. more info...
Join the ISEE Science Communications Committee for our inaugural virtual sci comm "working hours" on June 9 at 9am PT/12pm ET/6pm CET. We are aiming to cultivate a community to support science communication efforts across the society, so stay tuned in the coming months! For this first session, we will have some time for meet/greet; sharing inspirational science communication pieces; and quiet coworking on works-in-progress. more info...
This webinar is organized by the Pesticides and Health Special Interest Group, featuring speakers:
JOSE RICARDO SUAREZ 18 Years of the ESPINA Study: Tracking the Health Effects of Agricultural Pesticides in Ecuador from Childhood through Adulthood
For nearly two decades, the ESPINA study has investigated the longitudinal health impacts of agricultural pesticide exposure from childhood into young adulthood within a major floricultural region of Ecuador. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the study's 18-year trajectory, discuss key research findings detailing the physiological and developmental effects of pesticide exposure, as well as provide updates on our ongoing ancillary studies within the cohort. The session will also showcase how we are modernizing our epidemiological approach through the incorporation of new mobile and remote sensing technologies to better capture environmental and human data. Finally, we will outline the new directions of the research, exploring how these technological innovations are shaping the next phase of the ESPINA study.
ALEXIS HANDAL Prenatal Exposures and Maternal-Child Health in Ecuador's Floricultural Sector: A discussion of the SEMILLA Cohort
Women of reproductive age are a key part of the industrial agriculture workforce, yet occupational hazards in these settings remain understudied. In Latin America, women?s labor force participation has steadily increased since 1990, with about one-quarter employed in agriculture, including export-oriented agro-industries. The Ecuadorian floricultural industry offers a critical case for examining the occupational, environmental, and social impacts of large-scale export agriculture on surrounding communities and on the health of women workers, particularly during pregnancy, and their families. Built on research conducted since 2003, SEMILLA follows pregnant workers and nonworkers and their infants in a flower-growing region to assess how chemical exposures, alongside social and structural factors, impact maternal and child health, integrating biomonitoring, exposure assessment, and repeated measures of infant growth and neurodevelopment. Study design and methods, key initial findings, and ongoing analyses linking prenatal exposures to early developmental outcomes will be described. more info...
Under the theme “Understanding and Responding to Global and Local Challenges: Environmental Epidemiology in a Changing World”, we’ll come together to exchange ideas, share discoveries, and reflect on our evolving role as environmental epidemiologists in today’s world. more info...
