Dr. Roberto Lucchini Speaks to Vox about Climate Change & Kidney Disease

On February 15, 2019, Dr. Roberto Lucchini spoke to Vox about the rise of chronic kidney disease in Central America and how it could be linked to the rise in temperatures. When people are exposed to long stretches of extreme heat, they sweat more. If they don’t rehydrate, or don’t have access to clean drinking water, the kidneys, which are supposed to filter waste and regulate fluid in the body, get stressed. Over time, that stress can lead to kidney stones and chronic damage. Dr. Lucchini, an environmental and public health professor at Mount Sinai, who’s been studying the phenomenon, calls this the first epidemic that’s directly attributable to climate change. “It was not recognized before the rise in temperatures,” he said, “and the epidemic of these cases is currently observed in the countries that are more affected by [global warming] in the last decades,” from Central America to India and Southeast Asia. To read the full article click here.