Health and Environment International Trust

Tord Kjellstrom has academic degrees in Engineering (MMEng) and Medicine (PhD) and more than 50 years’ experience as a teacher, researcher and policy advocate in environmental and occupational health. He is currently Director of the research consultancy Health and Environment International Trust in Nelson, New Zealand, and has been Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at several universities and agencies in New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. He has conducted epidemiological field studies and population level analysis of key health hazards, including poisoning by cadmium, lead and mercury, as well as urban air pollution, traffic crash injuries, occupational asbestos cancer, and in the last 20 years on climate change impacts on occupational health and well-being. From 1985 – 1997 he was environmental epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva and was promoted in 1993 to Director of Global and Integrated Environmental Health with responsibility for the first detailed international report on the public health effects of climate change. His current focus is on the effects of exposure to heat due to climate change with respect to occupational health and labour productivity. He has published 400+ journal papers and technical reports of which appr. 120 concern climate change, heat and health. His team has developed the website ClimateCHIP.org presenting heat data and impact estimates in 67420 spatial grid cells (0.5 x 0.5 degrees) over all land areas on the planet.