Climate change threatens health
Killer heatwave risk ‘high’
There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat wave will strike England and kill more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change.
The report for the Department of Health was written by a panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Department of Health and Health Protection Agency. They estimate more than 3,000 people could die in an intense summer hot spell in southeast England. Just as many more could die from heat-related deaths over the summer.
Tens of thousands died across Europe in a heat wave during the summer of 2003, including over 14,000 people in France. Many died in hospital - the ill and elderly - because of a lack of cooling systems. [more]
more desease
Floods, droughts and wildfires can bring changes in infectious disease patterns, according to a paper published in the British Medical Journal. The World Health Organisation estimates that a quarter of the world’s diseases are due to the contamination of air, water, soil and food, with the “environment related burden” much greater in low income countries.
Prof Ian Gilmore, head of the Royal College of Physicians, warned Britain could face a “knock-on effect to health in this country if there is global starvation and drought”. Worldwide, more natural disasters and threats to food and water supplies would affect health and stretch health services.
Gill Morgan, head of the NHS Federation, said the country’s health service “has a major role to play in tackling climate change”.
“As the report highlights, rising temperatures will put significant pressure on the NHS, and may increase the amount of heat-related deaths and skins cancers, as well as respiratory and insect-borne diseases.” [more]
the challenge
Too often, we have made jokes about Climate Change improving our weather. It might also kill us, through its effects on the weather.
Beyond that, without cheap oil…
- ambulances won’t get us to hospital,
- the hospital won’t have electricity,
- and petrochemical drugs will run out.
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