Children’s HealthWatch Executive Director Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba was recently featured in the first installment of “Powerless,” a series from Public Health Watch examining how rising temperatures and skyrocketing electricity costs are placing Texans in danger. An excerpt featuring Dr. Ettinger de Cuba’s quote follows:
Disconnections during extreme weather have a cascading impact on health, said Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, a Boston University research associate professor whose studies with CATCH Heat Project and Children’s Health Watch focus on how social policies like energy assistance impact families.
“Cooling is vitally important to people in vulnerable categories. Pregnant women, people with chronic disease, seniors and very young children are most at risk,” Ettinger de Cuba said. “The littlest ones can’t put on or take off clothing as needed. They’re dependent on somebody else to get them water. Whatever it is, they are that much more vulnerable.”