# CDC Says Climate Change Threatens Public Health

*Published:* 2008-04-11
*Author:* Sheryl Canter

![Sheryl Canter](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2008/02/sheryl_canter.jpg)*This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.*

At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Howard Frumkin, a senior official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said there was [strong scientific evidence of major health problems](http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ia03RDjKYTFh-6wulAvc53sTZk3AD8VUG2B80) due to climate change in the next few decades, including:

- Heat waves that put children and the elderly at risk
- Danger of droughts and floods from extreme weather
- Increased food-borne and water-borne infectious diseases
- Worsened air pollution due to higher temperatures
- Migration into new areas of [vector-borne diseases](http://www.enotes.com/public-health-encyclopedia/vector-borne-diseases) like malaria

At least he got to say it. Last October, CDC testimony on the health risks from global warming was [censored by the White House](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2007/10/26/cdc_censorship/).

Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif), who chaired the hearing, said she suspected that "a layer of screening" continues to limit what CDC officials are allowed to say.

While insisting that CDC had no position on [EPA’s pending regulatory decisions](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2008/04/02/legal_action_epa/), Frumpkin said, "…there is strong evidence that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas … and there is strong evidence that climate change affects public health in many ways."