Background: Older adults make up 13% of the U.S. population, but are projected to account for 20% by 2040. Coinciding with this demographic shift, the rate of climate change is accelerating, bringing rising temperatures; increased risk of floods, droughts, and wildfires; stronger tropical storms and hurricanes; rising sea levels; and other climate-related hazards. Older Americans are expected to be located in places that may be relatively more affected by climate change, including coastal zones and large metropolitan areas.Objective: The objective of this review is to assess the vulnerability of older Americans to climate change and to identify opportunities for adaptation.Methods: We performed an extensive literature survey and summarized key findings related to demographics; climate stressors relevant to older adults; factors contributing to exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity; and adaptation strategies.Discussion: A range of physiological and socioeconomic factors make older adults especially sensitive to and/or at risk for exposure to heat waves and other extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes, floods, droughts), poor air quality, and infectious diseases. Climate change may increase the frequency or severity of these events.Conclusions: Older Americans are likely to be especially vulnerable to stressors associated with climate change. Although a growing body of evidence reports the adverse effects of heat on the health of older adults, research gaps remain for other climate-related risks. We need additional study of the vulnerability of older adults and the interplay of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive responses to projected climate stressors.

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Tracking incidence or prevalence of diseases and using that information to target interventions is a well-established strategy for improving public health. The need to track environmentally mediated chronic diseases is increasingly recognized. Trends in childhood illnesses are 1 element of a framework for children’s environmental health indicators, which also includes trends in contaminants in the environment and in concentrations of contaminants in bodies of children and their mothers. This article presents data on 3 groups of important childhood diseases or disorders that seem to be caused or exacerbated, at least in part, by exposure to environmental agents and for which nationally representative data are available. They are asthma, childhood cancers, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Data were used from the National Health Interview Survey for asthma and neurodevelopmental disorders; the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program for childhood cancer incidence; and the National Vital Statistics System for childhood cancer mortality. The prevalence of children with asthma doubled between 1980 and 1995, from 3.6% in 1980 to 7.5% in 1995. The annual incidence of childhood cancer increased from 1975 until approximately 1990 and seems to have become fairly stable since. Childhood cancer mortality has declined substantially during the past 25 years. Incidence of certain types of cancers has increased since 1974, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, central nervous system tumors, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Approximately 6.7% of children aged 5 to 17 were reported to have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in 1997–2000, and approximately 6 of every 1000 children were reported to have received a diagnosis of mental retardation during the same period.

SIR-The recent concern over indirect cost recovery at US universities is wellfounded, but researchers should be warned there may be a more ominous shakeup if government auditors decide to take a stricter stand on the allowability of direct costs. Direct line-item expenditures are approved by government agencies when research proposals are accepted for funding, and as such are implicitly considered allowable. But when the time