Debra Hendrickson, M.D.

Having a great time in Denver at the AAP NCE! It was wonderful to see @lisapatel.bsky.social in person yesterday!

The Air They Breathe: How Failure to Curb Climate Pollutants Endangers Young Lungs and Brains | Climate Week A panel of physicians and researchers will discuss the impacts of fossil fuel emissions and climate change on children's lung and brain development--and what parents can do.

Looking forward to being part of this fascinating panel on Monday! #ClimateWeekNYC www.climateweeknyc.org/events/air-t...

Zahra is doing amazing work, please read her latest:

Do you know what the latest research shows about fossil fuel emissions and autism? Or childhood asthma? Join us during Climate Week NYC to learn how recent environmental rollbacks endanger the developing lungs and brains of babies & children—and why those organs depend on clean air to form properly.

This Friday in Las Vegas—one of the fastest-warming and hottest cities in the country.

I am looking forward to this conversation in Las Vegas on Friday at 9 a.m. PT. Please join us!

It was wonderful to meet Dr. Mollie Grow and her colleagues at Seattle Children’s Hospital this week, where I gave Grand Rounds on the latest research on wildfire smoke and children’s health. Thank you to Dr. Grow, Dr. Elliott Weiss, and the entire Climate Care Committee at UW Pediatrics!

How a White House plan to overturn a key EPA regulation threatens children’s health In July, the Trump administration proposed revoking a landmark 2009 finding that’s been the basis for EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. If the proposal is finalized, ...

Thank you to PBS News Hour for having me on to discuss the threat that repeal of the Endangerment Finding poses to children. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

This talk has been rescheduled for August 20, looking forward to it!

EPA Regulations - 8/5/2025 A KFYR+ exclusive

Thank you to KFYR in Bismarck, ND! Parents, please submit comments to the EPA to uphold the Endangerment Ruling and stand up for our kids’ future. www.kfyrtv.com/video/2025/0...

Lecture Series on Climate and Health - St. Luke's Join us as we explore connections between climate change and health in Idaho.

Please join me on Aug 13! I’ll be focusing especially on what the latest research tells us about the short- and long-term risks of wildfire smoke to children.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Educating Expecting Parents and Families with Children on Extreme Heat. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. In this one-hour webinar, a panel of experts will discuss critical extreme heat preparedness and advocacy topics for both parents and expecting parents. As extreme heat becomes more common, families ...

Check out this webinar for parents on extreme heat, this Thursday, July 31 at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET!

The Air They Breathe A timely, revelatory first look into the impact climate change has on children—the greatest moral crisis humanity faces today—by a pediatrician in ...

The paperback of my book is out today! A new Afterword addresses the recent assault on climate action—and our children’s future—by the Trump administration, arguing that nihilism cannot defeat the love of millions of parents.

G.O.P. Bill Adds Surprise Tax That Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power

It’s weird that the GOP wants China to dominate the future of energy.

The two greatest public health advances in human history are regulations/ technologies to protect the safety of #water and #food, and the discovery and roll out of #vaccines.
It boggles the mind that Trump, RFK Jr. and the GOP want to eliminate them.
If successful, a lot of people are going to die.

‘You are not alone’: Most Nevadans worry about climate change, poll shows Las Vegas and Reno are the nation’s two fastest-warming cities because of climate change, and that has most Nevada residents worried.

In the state with the nation’s two fastest-warming cities, most believe in climate change and think officials should do something, polling from @yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social found.

Story @reviewjournal.com, with input from UNR and @debrahendrickson.bsky.social: www.reviewjournal.com/news/politic...

Thanks to the Parents' Climate Community, @climatefamsnyc.bsky.social, @forourkidscanada.bsky.social and others for hosting @debrahendrickson.bsky.social!

Graphic with text, logos and an image of a white woman wearing a blue shirt and glasses. Your Child's Health and CLIMATE CHANGE A Discussion with Dr. Debra Hendrickson, pediatrician and author of The Air They Breathe TUESDAY, MAY 13 1 PM EST/12 PM CST / 11 AM MST/ 10 AM PST Register Here

🌎 👩🏼‍⚕️ May 13 Online Event about the intersections between children's health and climate change. Our children are already facing the tangible impacts of climate change. 🩻

This event will give you the knowledge and motivation for more action. ✳️

www.forourkids.ca/theairtheybr...

Looking forward to it!

The wonderful folks at Our Kids’ Climate have produced this great video explaining how air pollution from dirty fuels like oil, coal, and gas is hurting children right now, every day—and why a switch to clean energy is vital for their health and future. Please watch & share!

YouTube video by The Not Old - Better Show Elders Teach Climate Hope #shorts

youtube.com/shorts/juwV0...

YouTube video by AZ Health Professionals for Climate Action Wildfire Smoke and Children's Health

#wildfires may happen in the west but spread everywhere. One of the more visible, tangible & smellable portions of #cliamtechange Children are some of the most vulnerable and bear the burden of disease. Great talk by @debrahendrickson.bsky.social
#cliimatehealth
#pediatrics
@azhpca.bsky.social

Thank you, Brian! It was wonderful to meet your med students.

Doctors sound alarm over proposed move by government agency that could pose grave danger to American families: 'It could cost lives' Doctors are raising the alarm about the EPA's proposed regulatory rollbacks, calling them baffling and warning they will cost lives.

The EPA’s proposed rollbacks threaten children's health. Pediatricians @lisapatel.bsky.social & @debrahendrickson.bsky.social break down what’s at stake & what we can do.

"If you have anything you can give to this effort to fight back, I would say do it now because your kids' future depends on it."

Thank you to Anna Robertson of The Cool Down for covering what @lisapatel.bsky.social and I had to say about the threat EPA’s recent deregulatory moves pose to children—and why we all need to speak up and push back.

The single most important laboratory in climate science, the tool that is telling us the story of our time, is now in the MAGA crosshairs. Not surprising. But sad, stupid, and tragic in the saddest and stupidest and most tragic way.

Excerpt from a public letter Roald Dahl wrote encouraging people to vaccinate their children. Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything. “Are you feeling all right?” I asked her. “I feel all sleepy,” she said. In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her. On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunized against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.

This (and how a child’s health is inextricably linked to the Earth’s) is the major theme of my book.

Trump says ‘something really wrong’ with autism rates ahead RFK Jr. vote President Trump shared figures inflating the spike in autism in a post Tuesday morning promoting his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, highlighting a key data point in Rober…

If Trump & RFK Jr want to know why autism rates are rising, they might look at their friends in the petrochemical industry. The evidence that air pollution causes neurodevelopmental problems is strong & growing, and micro- & nanoplastics (also “gifts” of the industry) are being implicated as well.

Talking about climate change is one of the most powerful actions we can take to protect the people and places we love. Help me keep the conversation going by sharing this film. #ScienceMoms @ScienceMoms Learn more at sciencemoms.com