Human health is linked to the environment
April 13, 2006 – How does climate change affect human health? An American researcher gives an overview, in a text he recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine1. According to Dr Paul R. Epstein of Harvard University, there is no doubt that the health of humans is intimately linked to that of the Earth… and vice versa.
According to this expert, climate change does not only cause extreme disasters (hurricanes, floods, storms, etc.) with dramatic consequences for the populations they strike. They cause a subtle, but real, increase in health risks for all populations of the world. What about the cases of malaria, cholera, dengue fever, but also asthma and allergies which are skyrocketing?
Accelerated warming Over the past 100 years, the planet’s temperature has increased by an average of 0,6 ° C. It doesn’t seem like much… But it took 10 years from the last ice age for there to be a variation of 000 ° C. Temperatures will continue to rise by 4 ° C and this rise could even reach 1,4 ° C during this century. This is predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international body made up of the world’s best climate scientists.2. |
“Over the past two decades, the prevalence of asthma has quadrupled in the United States, in part due to climatic factors,” said in his scientific article, Dr Epstein, deputy director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University, Boston.
According to him, the increase in the levels of carbon dioxide in the air – which is explained by the growth of industrial activity and transport – could be linked to these cases of asthma. It would indeed cause a greater concentration of pollen and allergenic particles in the air. High levels of carbon dioxide would cause the proliferation of fungi in the soils which, brought into contact with other air pollutants, would help spread the allergenic particles into the alveoli of the lungs of individuals.
The planet is warming up and the accumulation of carbon dioxide is increasing at an accelerating rate. Biodiversity is thus undergoing upheavals that can affect humans. According to the Dr Epstein, a rise in the average temperature allows insects that carry infections to live longer, reproduce faster, and reduce the maturation period of the microbes and viruses they carry. Hence the resurgence of infectious diseases.
Wildlife, forests, aquatic life and crops are threatened by all these climatic upheavals: the consequences are enormous on the air, food and water that humans need to live. “Sixty percent of resources – from fisheries to potable water – are already in decline or used unsustainably,” concludes Dr.r Paul R. Epstein.
Do your part! On the occasion of Earth Day, which since 1970 has been celebrated on April 22 every year, civil society organizations are proposing to take small actions which, taken as a whole, can positively influence the health of the planet. This day is also placed, this year, under the sign of eco-citizenship3.
|
Martin LaSalle and Johanne Lauzon – PasseportSanté.net
1. Epstein PR, Climate change and human health, New England Journal of Medicine, October 6, 2005, Vol. 353, No 14, 1433-6.
2. For more information on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): www.ipcc.ch [accessed April 13, 2006].
3. For more details on Earth Day activities taking place in Quebec, you can consult: www.jourdelaterre.org [consulted on April 13, 2006].
4. See also on this subject the website of One ton challenge promoted by the Government of Canada: www.changeclimate.gc.ca [accessed April 12, 2006].