It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh.

The doctrine of do-no-harm governs the work of health professionals.

But it should go further, if you ask climate and health campaigner Shweta Narayan.

In her talk at the Countdown Summit in 2021, she presses us to integrate doing no harm

in ways to keep the health of the planet top priority.

I grew up in Bukaro Steel City in eastern India, an industrial township surrounded by power plants and steel smelters.

One of my fondest memories as a child was to stare in the evenings

at the beautiful orange skies and flaring chimneys of the steel plant.

Little did I know at that time that these were all classic signs of severe air pollution. Cities like Bukaro were

dubbed as the temples of modern India that propelled the country into the 21st century. I now work

at the intersection of environment, health, and justice. I've been in the space for nearly two decades, and my experience tells

that the negative impacts of industrialization have outweighed the good. I've also in my work

come across several individuals and groups who, despite all odds, go beyond their call of

duty to serve their communities. I find health care

professionals working in polluted places as one such group who strive to do everything they can

to protect their patients and communities from risk. For example, Mina, a health worker from Korba district in central India. Her job is to

provide maternal care to pregnant women. However, Mina lives in a region that is surrounded by

coal and power plants and is considered among the top five critically polluted places in India.

So Mina also gives advice on how to protect the newborn children from the dangers of air pollution.

Mina and thousands of other health workers in India and across the world apply a concept

that has been with us since at least the fifth century BC,

when Hippocrates, the Greek physician, also considered as the father of modern medicine,

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