sustainable healthcare and mental health links

Mental health and sustainable healthcare

An unlikely pairing offers potential for discovery and insight.

Mental health has been on my mind lately, largely because EHN.org and The Allegheny Front just published a large series looking at the impacts of air, water and climate pollution on our mental health.


Turns out it's a vastly under-researched and under-reported topic. We know that air pollution affects the lungs. But such pollution also affects every bodily system, including the brain.

And then there's stress: Stress of coping with a changing climate, stress of living near fracking operations, stress of fighting for clean air and water, stress of wondering whether living in a particular house or neighborhood hurts the health of your kids.

All that has an impact on mental health, too.

Mental health & healthcare: An unlikely pairing

What sort of connection, I wondered, exists between our mental health and efforts to make healthcare more sustainable and healthy?

It's an unlikely pairing, I'll admit: I can't say, for instance, how efforts by my local hospital to reduce plastic affect my mental health.

But that kind of thinking on pollution and mental health has left a collective blind spot, our reporting team found. And I wondered if something similar existed on healthcare.

It’s common for people in fracked communities to experience "worry, anxiety, and depression about lifestyle, health, safety, and financial security," a literature review on fracking and mental health reported. “Entire communities can experience collective trauma as a result of the boom/bust cycle that often occurs when industries impinge on community life."

'Stress creates its own health impacts'

A lead author of a Pennsylvania fracking study relayed a story about a community member who suddenly understood, after fracking moved in, why sleep deprivation is used as a torture technique.

"That kind of stress creates its own health impacts," the researcher told our reporter. "When we document that someone has a headache, for example, is that because of a chemical exposure or because they haven't slept and their neighbors don't trust them anymore?"

So when I searched our databases for news stories about sustainability and either healthcare or mental health, I was pleasantly surprised to find nearly 33,000 stories in the last month.

More than one third – 22,000 – focused on healthcare and sustainability. About 10,500 focused on mental health.

Shared themes and concepts

Mental health and healthcare sustainability reportingMental health and sustainable healthcare

The real shock came when our AI software mapped a representative sample of 2,869 of those stories.

They were all clustered in a tight circle, suggesting a number of shared themes and concepts.

The screengrab above shows all 2,800 stories, sorted by our software into thematic, color-coded clusters, with lines connecting related stories.

Connections with healthcare

sustainability and mental  health reporting

Stories focusing specifically on mental health, highlighted in the above screengrab, sit clustered in the southern hemisphere.

But they're not islands: Many of the mental health clusters spider into and connect with healthcare clusters.

Links to plastic pollution, climate action

mental health plastic climate links

This screengrab highlights one such cluster – stories focusing on mental health research. Notice how the links stretch up and out to touch on clusters focused on plastic pollution, climate action and universal health coverage? That's an encouraging sign.

DEHP and mental health?

I'm not one to say where the promising research or reporting on mental health and sustainable healthcare needs to happen. But I think this area offers rich potential for discovery and discussion.

I think back to an alarming bit of science published earlier this month suggesting that the phthalate DEHP, commonly added to IV tubing and bags, contributes to breast cancer mortality and recurrence.

If you're fighting breast cancer and it flares up again, that's a huge mental burden for you and your loved ones.

And if your healthcare delivery system played a small role in that recurrence? That seems worth exploring.

Stencil of an electric vehicle on a brick pavement.

EU shifts course on climate policy as deregulation accelerates

The European Union has begun scaling back major environmental protections under the Green Deal, sparking concern among campaigners who say the bloc is rapidly losing its climate leadership.

Ajit Niranjan reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
Car tailpipe up close.

Republicans push to eliminate fines for carmakers that violate fuel economy rules

Senate Republicans are backing a proposal that would strip penalties from federal fuel economy standards, a move critics say could drive up gasoline use and tailpipe pollution.

Brad Plumer and Jack Ewing report for The New York Times.

Keep reading...Show less
View of the U.S. capitol building
Credit: Jacqui/Pixabay

Proposed tax rules risk choking U.S. clean energy projects over China supply links

A budget bill moving through Congress could block most U.S. clean energy projects from receiving tax credits if any part of their supply chain includes ties to China.

Dan Gearino reports for Inside Climate News.

Keep reading...Show less
Weight scales on an image of a smokestack.

EPA faces class action lawsuit over canceled environmental justice grants

A coalition of nonprofits, tribes, and local governments is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after it abruptly canceled $3 billion in environmental justice grants awarded under the Biden administration.

Tracy J. Wholf reports for CBS News.

Keep reading...Show less
Flooded river with bare trees in distance against a cloudy sky.

Vermont defends landmark climate law as Trump administration and oil industry sue

Vermont is preparing for a drawn-out legal fight after President Trump’s Justice Department joined fossil fuel interests in suing to block the state’s new Climate Superfund law, which seeks to make oil companies pay for decades of greenhouse gas emissions.

Nina Sablan reports for Inside Climate News.

Keep reading...Show less
Graphic image of two human heads facing away from one another.

New AI tool raises concerns over industry's ability to sow doubt on pollution research

A chemical-industry-backed researcher is using artificial intelligence to question links between pollution and health risks, prompting concern among scientists about bias and regulatory delay.

Dharna Noor reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
a car that is sitting upside down on top of a pile of debris after a tornado.

FEMA delays and funding cuts leave state emergency programs in limbo

State and local emergency management agencies are facing growing uncertainty as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) delays major grant programs and President Trump signals plans to dismantle the agency.

Jennifer Berry Hawes reports for ProPublica.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

Multiple Houston-area oil and gas facilities that have violated pollution laws are seeking permit renewals

One facility has emitted cancer-causing chemicals into waterways at levels up to 520% higher than legal limits.

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

Regulators are underestimating health impacts from air pollution: Study

"The reality is, we are not exposed to one chemical at a time.”

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro speaks with the state flag and American flag behind him.

Two years into his term, has Gov. Shapiro kept his promises to regulate Pennsylvania’s fracking industry?

A new report assesses the administration’s progress and makes new recommendations

silhouette of people holding hands by a lake at sunset

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.