Hushing Health Hazards of Climate Change

In October 2007, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) heavily edited testimony from CDC Director Julie Gerberding intended for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The edits removed seven pages of content that linked climate change to specific health risks for the American public, including increased mortality from heat waves, worsening asthma and allergies in children, and the potential for exotic vector-borne diseases. While the White House claimed the CDC's statements were not in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings, an IPCC lead author and a Senate committee comparison asserted that the original testimony was scientifically accurate and consistent with IPCC reports.

• The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) significantly reduced the length of CDC Director Julie Gerberding's testimony before a Senate committee hearing on October 23, 2007, replacing the original with an edited version that was half as long.
• The censorship involved the deletion of seven pages, which removed specific descriptions of health threats and vulnerable populations, as well as explicit links between climate change and practical consequences for Americans.
• Specific deleted warnings included the risk of increased mortality due to more frequent and severe heat waves combined with an aging population, the worsening of asthma and allergies in children, the potential for exotic vector-borne diseases to establish in the U.S., and threats to food security and prices due to altered agricultural production.
• The White House justified the deletions by claiming the CDC's statements contradicted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a claim disputed by an IPCC lead author and a side-by-side comparison prepared by the Senate committee.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2008). Hushing Health Hazards of Climate Change. https://www.ucs.org/resources/attacks-on-science/hushing-health-hazards-climate-change

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Hushing Health Hazards of Climate Change. 2008. https://www.ucs.org/resources/attacks-on-science/hushing-health-hazards-climate-change.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Hushing Health Hazards of Climate Change |date=11 February 2008 |url=https://www.ucs.org/resources/attacks-on-science/hushing-health-hazards-climate-change |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2008hushing, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Hushing Health Hazards of Climate Change}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2008}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ucs.org/resources/attacks-on-science/hushing-health-hazards-climate-change}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }