[prakruti] World Health Day: The Hazards of Global Warming to Your Health

April 27, 2008

World Health Day: The Hazards of Global Warming to Your

Health

By Susan Blumenthal and Yi-An Ko and Stephanie Safdi and

Beth Hoffman and Julie Chen, Huffington Post

Posted on April 7, 2008, Printed on April 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/81530/As

thousands of people pour into emergency rooms and millions line up to be

vaccinated, Brazil's public health officials and recently even its

military are fighting to control vector-borne diseases. Mosquitoes are

carrying illnesses like dengue and yellow fever into Brazil's largest

cities, including Rio and Brasília, and the tropical disease,

chikungunya, previously unheard of in Italy, was reported there last

year. The two recent outbreaks in Brazil have caused a total of more than

80 deaths, 57,000 new infections, and widespread panic. As a result of

global warming, mosquitoes, ticks, rodents and other vectors are

expanding their geographic range and altering long-established patterns

of disease. Climate changes worldwide are also causing serious problems

with food and water supplies, increasing mental health concerns, and

exacerbating air pollution, which elevates chronic disease risk.

Global temperature increases of 0.9°F (0.5°C) over the past century have

led to an estimated 150,000 deaths and the loss of 5.5 million

disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) annually, with the rates expected

to double over the next several decades. The World Health Organization

(WHO) has documented 39 new or re-emerging diseases since the 1960's,

many linked to global warming -- an explosion of illnesses that has not

been seen since the Industrial Revolution when masses of people moved to

cities, increasing the spread of disease. Nevertheless, only minimal

attention has been paid to one of the most significant yet least

publicized hazards of climate change -- its impact on the health of

people worldwide. Human health, influenced by a complex system of

biological, social, economic, political and geographic factors, is

particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming and has

significant humanitarian, economic and national security implications. On

World Health Day, it is time to focus international attention on this

critical issue.

Many infectious diseases exhibit sensitivity to climate change.

Mosquitoes -- the most common disease vectors that spread illnesses such

as malaria, dengue, West Nile encephalitis, and yellow fever -- thrive in

wet and humid tropical environments. Currently, at least one million

people die every year, including 3000 children every day, from malaria. A

3.6-5.4°F increase in global temperatures would cause malaria-carrying

mosquitoes to enter new geographic areas, placing millions more people at

risk of the disease. Moreover, this is not just a problem for the

developing world. Malaria and dengue fever cases have been reported in

the United States. West Nile encephalitis outbreaks, linked to warmer

temperatures, have been on the rise in America as well. Studies also

suggest that the extreme storms of El Niño increased mosquito

populations, contributing to a five-fold rise in malaria rates worldwide.

As global climate change produces more extreme weather events, such as

hurricanes and flooding, spikes in the prevalence of other weather

sensitive diseases can be expected. Furthermore, deforestation, a major

contributor to global warming, has brought animals and ticks in contact

with humans, resulting in the emergence of a new infectious illness,

Lyme's Disease, first reported in 1975. Global warming is projected to

expand the range of ticks that carry this disease.

The earth's water supply has also been profoundly affected by global

warming, endangering the health of people and the planet. Water is

essential to all aspects of life, yet 99% of water on Earth is unsafe or

unavailable to drink. As a result of global warming, water will become

even more scarce and contaminated as climate patterns change, extreme

weather events occur, and glaciers melt. The 20th century has witnessed

the greatest increase in temperature of any century in the past thousand

years, bringing with it a change in precipitation patterns and a rise in

sea levels. Global sea levels rose at an average rate of 0.07 inches per

year from 1961-2003 (rising at an even greater rate of 0.12 inches per

year on average from 1993-2003) reducing fresh water availability and

elevating water temperatures that threaten already scarce water supplies.

The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report projected that

the global mean sea level is expected to rise between 7.1 to 23.2 inches

by 2100. In many places, a rise in 19.7 inches would cause some beaches

to be washed away, and for some islands such as the Maldives, it could

mean significant portions of the land being submersed underwater.

Furthermore, the combination of extreme weather events and changes in the

availability of water affect agricultural food production, destroy

botanical sources of natural medicines, incapacitate sewage systems, and

result in widespread population displacement, leading to disruptions in

acute and chronic disease management with national security implications

as well. Some of the world's major conflicts have arisen over disputes

concerning arable land and water and these types of tensions may become

even more prevalent as resources diminish.

Changes to the earth's water supply have threatened populations around

the globe with new diseases and sanitation concerns. 1.1 billion people

worldwide lack safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people do not have

access to adequate sanitation infrastructure. In the United States alone,

more than 750,000 cases of diseases associated with unsafe drinking water

occurred between 1980 and 1996. Moreover, changes in the quality and

distribution of water in the aftermath of extreme weather events are

linked to increased malnutrition and food poisoning, increased rates of

child and infant mortality, and elevated morbidity and deaths from

diarrheal diseases. Flooding, in particular, causes upsurges in

rodent-borne illnesses, such as leptospirosis, tularemia, plague, viral

hemorrhagic diseases and cholera. The impact on human health continues

long after the waters recede - with toxic contamination of food and water

and mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and

depression. Not surprisingly, developing nations bear the overwhelming

burden of the health damaging effects of climate change. Of the 600,000

casualties caused by weather-related natural disasters in the 1990s, 95%

occurred in the developing world. As a result of flooding in 2007 alone,

30,000 people lost their lives in Venezuela, and in China, 105 million

people required immediate basic survival needs such as food, water,

shelter, sanitation and medical assistance.

Scientific evidence also suggests that the noticeably hot summers of

recent years may not be a coincidence. Climate change generates extremely

hot weather, which threatens large population groups across the world

with heat stroke and cardiac and respiratory complications. The 2003

European summer heat waves, during which temperatures reached 95° to

104°F, were associated with 35,000 deaths in a two month period. As the

average global temperature rises, such heat waves can be expected to

increase in severity and frequency.

Along with changes to water supplies and temperature patterns, global

warming has dramatically affected the quality and safety of the very air

we breathe. Air pollution is linked to 2 million deaths worldwide. Global

warming enhances smog formation, which contributes to an increased risk

for chronic diseases including lung cancer, heart disease, asthma and

allergies (the rates of which have increased fourfold in the U.S. alone

since 1980). Recent studies have found that carbon dioxide stimulates the

production of pollen and of the spores of some fungi found in the soil.

These allergens are carried into the lungs of humans by diesel particles

found in urban areas, contributing to an increased risk for acute and

chronic disease. These illnesses are further exacerbated by ground level

ozone formation emanating from traffic emissions, increases in

particulate matter, pollen and mold, and exposure to greenhouse gases

like nitrous oxide. A study extrapolating the effects of air pollution

suggests that a 1.8°F rise in temperature could increase global deaths by

another 21,600 per year. Recent conditions in Beijing offer a worrisome

example of the effects of air pollution on human health. In this city of

over 17 million people, 2007 smog levels exceeded safety guidelines set

by the World Health Organization by 400%, leaving citizens with only 65

days of acceptable breathing air and prompting public health officials to

close highways and restrict air travel. These environmental problems have

raised concerns by some people about the health of athletes competing in

the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The profound effects of climate change demonstrate that the health of our

planet and its people are inextricably entwined and underscore why action

is needed now on multiple fronts to safeguard the health of people

worldwide. The fight to stop global warming and reduce its health

damaging effects begins with building a cleaner energy future and a more

climate-conscious population. Greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced

and natural resources protected through increased use of clean, efficient

energy sources, developing new clean energy technologies, and encouraging

individuals to make more environmentally conscious lifestyle decisions.

Public health infrastructure and planning must be strengthened by

advancing climate modeling and satellite monitoring, improving

environmental public health tracking and disease surveillance, and

increasing research into the relationship between climate change and

health. Additionally, increasing health professional training and public

education, developing government and private sector response plans, and

building communication networks will enhance society's capacity to

respond. To prevent and reduce the serious public health threats from

global warming, nations in both the developed and developing world must

share knowledge and best practices. A global coalition of governments,

NGO's, businesses, schools, philanthropists, and individuals must

collaborate across communities and countries to develop and implement

lifesaving programs and innovative policies to ensure a greener and

healthier world.

*Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, M.D. (ret.) is the Distinguished

Advisor for Health and Medicine at the Center for the Study of the

Presidency in Washington, D.C. and a Clinical Professor at Georgetown and

Tufts University Schools of Medicine. For more than twenty years, she

served in health leadership positions in the Federal government,

including as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States and as the

first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Women's Health in the U.S. Department

of Health and Human Services, and as Chief of the Behavioral Medicine and

Basic Prevention Research Branch at the National Institutes of Health.

She was also a White House Advisor on health issues. Dr. Blumenthal has

received numerous awards including honorary doctorates for her important

contributions to improving health in the United States and

globally.

Yi-An Ko, a recent graduate of Harvard University, is a health policy

fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington

D.C.

Stephanie Safdi, M.Phil, is a research assistant at the Center for the

Study of the Presidency in Washington D.C. She graduated summa cum laude

from Harvard University and earned her Masters Degree from Cambridge

University on a Harvard-Cambridge Scholarship. Ms. Safdi served as a

research fellow at the Harvard Initiative for Global Health and is the

recent recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship.

Beth Hoffman, an honors graduate of Brown University, is a health policy

fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and will be a first

year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

in the Fall.

Julie Chen, a senior at the University of California-Berkeley, is an

intern at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington

D.C.

For a comprehensive scientific overview of the effects of global warming,

see the Intergovernmental Reports on Climate Change (IPCC), available

here.

This article is adapted from a commentary piece published in the

Washington Times on April 6, 2008.

View this story online at:

http://www.alternet.org/story/81530/

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PAt 05:35 AM 4/27/08, you wrote:

World Health Day: The Hazards of

Global Warming to Your Health

By Susan Blumenthal and Yi-An Ko and Stephanie Safdi and Beth Hoffman and

Julie Chen, Huffington Post

Posted on April 7, 2008, Printed on April 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/81530/

As thousands of people pour into emergency rooms and millions line up to

be vaccinated, Brazil's public health officials and recently even its