Climate change and human health: present and future risks

McMichael, Anthony J.; Woodruff, Rosalie; Hales, Simon

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(06)68079-3

Cited by 2,092 publications

(1,409 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…Elucidating the relationship between humans and the climate is complicated by the interactive nature of the many environmental, biological, and socioeconomic conditions that can influence human health (Epstein, 2005;Haines et al, 2006;McMichael et al, 2006;Patz et al, 2005). The nature of negative health outcomes linked to climate change and the ability of populations to acclimate will depend on many conditions.…”

Section: Vulnerable Subpopulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The toxicology of climate change: Environmental contaminants in a warming world

Noyes

McElwee

Miller

et al. 2009

Environment International

970

569

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Climate change induced by anthropogenic warming of the earth's atmosphere is a daunting problem. This review examines one of the consequences of climate change that has only recently attracted attention: namely, the effects of climate change on the environmental distribution and toxicity of chemical pollutants. A review was undertaken of the scientific literature (original research articles, reviews, government and intergovernmental reports) focusing on the interactions of toxicants with the environmental parameters, temperature, precipitation, and salinity, as altered by climate change. Three broad classes of chemical toxicants of global significance were the focus: air pollutants, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including some organochlorine pesticides, and other classes of pesticides. Generally, increases in temperature will enhance the toxicity of contaminants and increase concentrations of tropospheric ozone regionally, but will also likely increase rates of chemical degradation. While further research is needed, climate change coupled with air pollutant exposures may have potentially serious adverse consequences for human health in urban and polluted regions. Climate change producing alterations in: food webs, lipid dynamics, ice and snow melt, and organic carbon cycling could result in increased POP levels in water, soil, and biota. There is also compelling evidence that increasing temperatures could be deleterious to pollutant-exposed wildlife. For example, elevated water temperatures may alter the biotransformation of contaminants to more bioactive metabolites and impair homeostasis. The complex interactions between climate change and pollutants may be particularly problematic for species living at the edge of their physiological tolerance range where acclimation capacity may be limited. In addition to temperature increases, regional precipitation patterns are projected to be altered with climate change. Regions subject to decreases in precipitation may experience enhanced volatilization of POPs and pesticides to the atmosphere. Reduced precipitation will also increase air pollution in urbanized regions resulting in negative health effects, which may be exacerbated by temperature increases. Regions subject to increased precipitation will have lower levels of air pollution, but will likely experience enhanced surface deposition of airborne POPs and increased run-off of pesticides. Moreover, increases in the intensity and frequency of storm events linked to climate change could lead to more severe episodes of chemical contamination of water bodies and surrounding watersheds. Changes in salinity may affect aquatic organisms as an independent stressor as well as by altering the bioavailability and in some instances increasing the toxicity of chemicals. A paramount issue will be to identify species and populations especially vulnerable to climate-pollutant interactions, in the context of the many other physical, chemical, and biological stressors that will be altered with climate change. Moreover, it w...

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Section: Vulnerable Subpopulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The toxicology of climate change: Environmental contaminants in a warming world

Noyes

McElwee

Miller

et al. 2009

Environment International

970

569

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Several infectious agents are particularly sensitive to climatic conditions (McMichael et al, 2006). However, the socio-economic circumstances, such as economic well-being, can promote certain measures that inhibit the transmission of infectious disease (Martens et al, 1999).…”

Section: Epidemics Climate Change and Economic Well-being In Ming Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the current background of climate change literature, improving economic well-being remains a primary objective in order to prevent infectious diseases (Khasnis and Nettleman, 2005). However, studies that compare the influences of climate change and economic well-being in triggering infectious diseases are scarce (McMichael et al, 2006), mainly because of the absence of long-term and high-quality datasets (Patz et al, 2005). Here we analyze historical records of disease in order to explore long-term mechanism by which shocks of climate and economic factors affect epidemics (Lafferty, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemics in Ming and Qing China: Impacts of changes of climate and economic well-being

Pei

Zhang

et al. 2015

Social Science & Medicine

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a b s t r a c tWe investigated the mechanism of epidemics with the impacts of climate change and socio-economic fluctuations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China (AD 1368e1901). Using long-term and highquality datasets, this study is the first quantitative research that verifies the 'climate change / economy / epidemics' mechanism in historical China by statistical methods that include correlation analysis, Granger causality analysis, ARX, and Poisson-ARX modeling. The analysis provides the evidences that climate change could only fundamentally lead to the epidemics spread and occurrence, but the depressed economic well-being is the direct trigger of epidemics spread and occurrence at the national and long term scale in historical China. Moreover, statistical modeling shows that economic well-being is more important than population pressure in the mechanism of epidemics. However, population pressure remains a key element in determining the social vulnerability of the epidemics occurrence under climate change. Notably, the findings not only support adaptation theories but also enhance our confidence to address climatic shocks if economic buffering capacity can be promoted steadily. The findings can be a basis for scientists and policymakers in addressing global and regional environmental changes.

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“…Adverse health outcomes such as changing global patterns of disease incidence and mortality, shortage of food, water, and shelter, and inadequate sanitation, have emerged to challenge routine public health practices that focus exclusively on local stressors. The well-recognized local stressors exacerbate human exposure to additional harm from climate change, thereby providing new challenges for health planning (Costello et al, 2009, Houghton and English, 2014, McMichael et al, 2006. However, there is a severe shortage of experiences within the National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which are relevant to moving the health sector beyond traditional coping mechanisms at national levels (IPCC, 2001;UNFCCC, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Climate change acts to exacerbate existing patterns of ill health by acting on the underlying environmental and socio-demographic vulnerabilities (McMichael et al, 2006;Nguendo-Yongsi and Dovie, 2007;Sheridan and Allen, 2015;Smith et al, 2014;Xu et al, 2013). The highly regulated health sector depends mostly on the EPHI to integrate environment-based issues, but the sector is confronted with organizational difficulties to integrate additional climatic risk indicators which are external to EPHI.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%