The Climate Change Effect On Health

Premise
Climate is a fundamental driver of environmental conditions and, as such, it is

much influential on the health of humans. An illustrative introduction on the
impact of climate change on human health is provided in the videos of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Climate change and your health and How
climate affects community health.
Why climate change affects human health? Through evolution, climate and physical
condition of individuals co-evolve so that the latter adapts to the former. Changes
in climate, of whatever nature, imply a corresponding adaptation of individuals.
Such adaptation may require some time and imply adverse consequences. After global
warming several concerns were raised on the impact on the health of people. These
are the subject of intensive research activities.
It is important to remember that the different health impacts caused by climate
change may not occur in isolation. People may face multiple impacts of different
nature at the same time, at different stages in their lives, or accumulating over
the course of their lives. For example, extremely hot days can lead to heat-related
illness as well as poor air quality, by increasing the chemical reactions that
produce smog. In addition, many of the factors that influence whether a person is
exposed to health threats or whether they become ill, such as an individual’s
personal habits, living conditions, and access to medical care, can also change
over time.
1.1. Classification and study of climate impacts on human health
Medical issues caused by natural disasters, such as floods and hurricanes, can be
classified into:
• issues associated with physical trauma;
• issues associated to non-traumatic conditions.
Physical traumas are only a fraction of the health impact of climate change.
Actually, severe impacts are associated to non-traumatic conditions such as:
• cardiovascular diseases;
• respiratory diseases;
• vector-borne diseases;
• Mental disorder.
The above medical issues can also be divided into:
• short term impacts, like for instance physical traumas;
• long term impacts, like for instance mental disorder, who may also
affect future generations.
Climate change impact of human health thus refer to several different medical
specializations. Its mitigation requires a multidisciplinary (better
interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary) approach, by seeking a connection with
completely different disciplines like climate science, hydrology, economics and
many others. Such need for crossing the boundaries between disciplines is one of
the barriers to a comprehensive approach to the problem.
In fact, the effects of climate change on health are the product of complex
mechanisms that attack several organs and systems in the human body. For example,
climate change may be responsible for vector-borne diseases due to more favorable
conditions for the survival of the pathogen or vector, or the increasingly reported
psychosocial problems associated with the emotional burden induced by climate
anxiety.
1.2. Climate effects on human health
Climate change may impact human health in several different ways depending on
factors which may include:
• local climate variations;
• the climate variables which are affected by change;
• local conditions of the socio-economic context, like accessibility to
health care, water security state, agricultural production and techniques;
• local features of populations, like age, nutrition, health state;
• climate change adaptation policies.
The health of people is affected through a change in one or more climatic
variables, like:
• temperature,
• extreme rainfall,
• peak river flow,
• extreme wind velocity,
• solar irradiance and others.
Several sources indicate that the climate variables most relevant to health are:
• Temperature, generating heat waves and droughts;
• Extreme precipitation, generating floods and droughts;
• Extreme wind velocity generating windstorms.
In fact, climate change may affect food production and quality, air quality, water
quality and the ecosystems conditions in general. Diseases caused by climate change
include cardiovascular illnesses during events of extreme heat; chronic kidney
disease among outdoor workers in hot areas; and many others.
A nice summary of the most significant exposure pathways by which climate change is
affecting global health is given by chapter 11 of the 5th Assessment Report of
IPCC, which is copied below in Figure 1.

The Climate Change Effect On Health

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Climate is a fundamental driver of environmental conditions and, as such, it is

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