Climate Change and Health Impacts

• There is a worldwide consideration of the potential health impacts of global climate change.
• Three types of health impacts include direct impacts, consequences of environmental change and ecological disruption, and consequences that occur from climate change-induced factors

Factors for Climate Change-Indirect Health

• Economic dislocation
• Environmental decline
• Conflict

Mapping Links Between Climate Change and Health

• The impacts of climate change are expected to be adverse, but some could be beneficial.
• Changes in frequency and severity of known health risks are more likely than new health risks.

Health Effects

• Climate change can cause temperature-related illness and death.
• It also has links to extreme weather-related health effects
• It links to air pollution related health effects.
• It can lead to water and food-borne diseases.
• It also links to vector and rodent borne diseases.
• Climate changes can also cause food and water shortages
• and population displacement

Direct Impacts to Health from Heat

• The human body maintains body temperature until ambient temperatures exceed 32 degrees C.
• Above 32 degrees C, the body loses heat through skin and sweating.
• Heat-related illness occurs when the body has decreased cooling ability.
• It is more difficult to cool when minimum temperature is greater than 22 degrees C.
• High humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating and increases the risk of heat-related illness at any given temperature.

Direct Impacts to Health

• Heat cramps cause muscular pains and spasms.
• Heat exhaustion causes body fluids to be lost through heavy sweating.
• Heat stroke is life-threatening.

Indirect Impacts

• Gradual and extreme temperature increases can affect many areas.
• Ecosystems, water, food, disease-carrying vectors, lifestyle, and community resilience are affected

Health Impacts of Floods

• Immediate deaths and injuries are a direct result from floods.
• Non-specific increases in mortality are an impact
• There are infectious diseases, such as leptospirosis, hepatitis, diarrheal, respiratory, and vector-borne diseases
• There is exposure to toxic substances in flood waters
• Mental health effects
• There are indirect effects and increased demands on health systems

Health Implications of Floods

• Increased stream flow velocity, topographic land features, absence of warning, rapid speed of flood onset, deep floodwaters, landslides, risk behavior, and fast flowing waters carrying boulders and fallen trees can all cause drowning and injuries
• Contact with water can cause respiratory diseases, shock, hypothermia, or cardiac arrest
• Contact with polluted water can cause wound infections, dermatitis, conjunctivitis, gastrointestinal illness, ear, nose and throat infections, and possible serious waterborne diseases
• An Increase of physical and emotional stress can cause an increase of susceptibility to psychosocial disturbances and cardiovascular incidents

Indirect Health Effects-Floods

• Damage to water supply and sewage systems can cause waterborne infections, such as enterogenic E.coli, shigella, hepatitis A, Leptospirosis, giardiasis, camplylobacter, dermatitis, and conjunctivitis
• Disruption of transport systems can cause food shortages and disruption of emergency response.
• Underground pipe disruption, dislodgement of storage tanks, overflow of toxic waste sites, and the release of chemicals can cause potential acute or chronic effects of chemical pollution.
• Heavy rainfalls and expanded range of vector habitats cause vector-borne diseases.
• Rodent and other pest migration causes possible diseases caused by rodents or other pests
• Disruption of social networks, loss of property, jobs and family members and friends causes possible psychosocial disturbances
• Clean-up activities following floods cause electrocutions, injuries, lacerations, and skin punctures
• Destruction of primary food products cause food shortage
• Damage to health services and disruption of "normal" health service activities causes a decrease of “normal" health care services and leads to insufficient access to medical care

Climatic Change: Drinking Water Supply

• Drying climate causes changes to land cover and run-off patterns (erosion).
• It leads to an increased bushfire risk
• It can also lead to increased sediment, nutrients, and debris.
• Flooding can also affect drinking water supplies through coastal intrusion and contamination.
• Flooding also cause reduction in flows to dams and groundwater aquifers and increased evaporation from surface water storages.
• Salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers and acidification of susceptible inland aquifers
• Increased risk arise from concentration of nutrient and chemical contaminants and the formation of toxic algal blooms

Climatic Change: Air Quality

• Weather has a major role in the development, transport, dispersion, and deposition of air pollutants.
• Air pollution episodes are often associated with stationary or slowly moving air masses
• Air pollutants and fine particulate matter may change in response to climate change.
• Airflow on edges of a high-pressure system can transport ozone precursors, leading to rising ozone levels in many areas.
• An increase in fire events will mean increased toxic gases and particulates.
• Changes in wind patterns may increase long-range transport of air pollutants.
• Weather patterns can enhance urban "heat islands", which can lead to elevated pollution levels.

Potential health impacts from air quality

• Ozone can cause pneumonia, COPD, asthma, and allergic rhinitis
• Particulate matter (PM) is known to affect morbidity and mortality
• Toxic gases and PM from fires contribute to acute and chronic respiratory illness, as evidenced by the 1997 Indonesia fires.
• Windblown dust (respirable particles, trace elements) from desert regions can affect populations in remote areas.
• Mortality is increased in the days after a dust storm.

Mosquito-borne-disease: Environmental Changes

Distribution of vectors will change: caused by

• Increasing temperature
  • Changing rainfall: -Increase or decrease
    • Seasonality
• Cyclones and flooding
• Rising sea levels
• Extreme tides
• Changes in animal host and reservoir populations
• Loss of coastal margins

Mosquito-borne-disease: Human Factors

• Location of population -Geographic location -Proximity to water bodies
• Urban environment cause of peri-domestic breeding
• Mobility of population like the arrival of infected people
  • International
  • Interstate
  • Intrastate
• Living standards, and insect screens, air conditioning and Social/political breakdown

Mosquito-borne-disease: Water Management

Breeding is also influenced by water hoarding, storage, rainwater tanks, uncovered containers, dams, irrigation, and groundwater recharge

An overview of the potential health impacts of global climate change. The types of health impacts include direct impacts, consequences of environmental change and ecological disruption, and consequences that occur from climate change-induced factors. Climate change can cause temperature-related illness and death.