Sad to say, it’s not new that the climate disrupts our well-being.
“I would say the environment has always played a significant role in our health,” said Kristin Ryan. “Throughout history we’ve been impacted by our environment – positive and negative -and always will be.”
But it’s clear that the summer of 2026 has been a challenge, particularly for southern Idaho.
“Smoke from wildfire is very unhealthy to breathe. And I think we’ll be seeing more and more data coming out, showing how serious those health implications are.”
If there is a silver lining in those clouds, is that Ryan, the new director of Central District Health – serving Ada, Boise, Elmore, and Valley counties – has an impressive resume’ when it comes to environmental health and environment quality.
“My career has definitely had a foot in both worlds: environmental and public health,” said Ryan. “There are some new ideas and concepts that are being actively explored because these are the problems our communities are starting to face.”
The environment was just one topic of conversation. Ryan also discussed Central District Health’s role as an “invisible safety net.”
“We’re hoping we can become more than just the public health agency everyone associates with vaccines or masks,” she added. “We want to help people in other ways that are important to their health.”
One of the more recent health concerns is the growing number of reports of rats in neighborhoods across the region. The good news, Ryan said, is that, to date, there hasn’t been an increase in disease or communicable diseases as a result of the increase in rats or rodents.
That said, Ryan is anxious to participate in an upcoming workshop session, hosted by Ada County, where officials from local cities will be asked to strategize, including the possibility of creating a new abatement district.
That led to a conversation about something called “Rat Island” in Alaska, which gained some infamy when Alaska health officials were anxious to decimate the population of rats that had become the main inhabitants of the island in the Aleutians.
“It’s a semi-famous event.”
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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