Global Change: Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Warming, and Public Health

Last, J.

doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.14.1.115

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…We can expect an increasing focus on modeling and predicting coevolution of humans and many relevant plant, microbial, invertebrate, and vertebrate species under the selective forces of global climate change and our attempts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Geographic shifts with temperature and humidity will have major effects on agriculture, vector-borne diseases, and migrations of populations (Last 1993;Ebi and Semenza 2008). The Arctic is particularly susceptible to climate change, with warming occurring at a rate twice that of moderate zones, leading to striking changes in the forests and viability of crops, appearance of unfamiliar insects and microbes, and thinning and breakup of the arctic ice.…”

Section: Global Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the Teaching of Evolution in Public Health

Omenn

2011

Evo Edu Outreach

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Summary Public health courses are emerging as popular undergraduate offerings, especially at universities with schools of public health. It is important to note that evolution has shaped the burden of disease in the modern world in which we practice and educate for public health. Human cultures and technologies have modified life on Planet Earth and have co-evolved with myriad other species, including microorganisms, plant and animal sources of food, invertebrate vectors of disease, and intermediate bird, mammal, and primate hosts. Molecular mechanisms of evolution have produced differential resistance or susceptibility to infectious agents, including malaria, plague, smallpox, TB, measles, and diarrheal and respiratory diseases. The domestication of sheep and cattle led to natural selection in favor of human populations able to digest milk throughout life through persistence into adulthood of lactase enzyme expression in the intestine, a major story of anthropology. The emergence of a “Western diet” of dairy, refined cereal grains, refined sugars, vegetable oils, alcoholic beverages, salt, and omega-6-rich meats has dramatically altered glycemic load, fatty acid composition, macro-nutrients, acid-base balance, sodium/potassium ratio, and fiber content. This is a major story of nutrition and disease. The results include epidemics of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, certain cancers, and bowel, inflammatory, and autoimmune disorders. Another interesting phenomenon is the selection of excessive hemostatic activity from platelets and the plasma clotting proteins; what was protective against death from bleeding after injuries among hunter-gatherers or from pregnancy-related hemorrhage now contributes to thrombosis underlying heart attacks and strokes. Conversely, there is little pressure against hemostasis and thrombosis since deaths from these causes occur mostly after the reproductive years of life. Learning about evolution over millennia for humans and over hours or days for microbes enlivens the experience of understanding evolutionary biology in public health context.

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Section: Global Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the Teaching of Evolution in Public Health

Omenn

2011

Evo Edu Outreach

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“…The Arctic is particularly susceptible to climate change, with warming occurring at a rate twice that of moderate zones, leading to striking changes in the forests and viability of crops, appearance of unfamiliar insects and microbes, and thinning and breakup of the arctic ice. We can anticipate progressive major changes in temperature, humidity, habitats, vectors, and transmission for a host of infectious agents (52). A possible example is the appearance of the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus gattii in 1999 in the Pacific Northwest, with 200 human and 400 domestic animal cases now reported in normal individuals; previously, human cases occurred only rarely, mostly among immunocompromised patients.…”

Section: Emerging Topics With Evolutionary Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and public health

Omenn

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Evolution and its elements of natural selection, population migration, genetic drift, and founder effects have shaped the world in which we practice public health. Human cultures and technologies have modified life on this planet and have coevolved with myriad other species, including microorganisms; plant and animal sources of food; invertebrate vectors of disease; and intermediate hosts among birds, mammals, and nonhuman primates. Molecular mechanisms of differential resistance or susceptibility to infectious agents or diets have evolved and are being discovered with modern methods. Some of these evolutionary relations require a perspective of tens of thousands of years, whereas other changes are observable in real time. The implications and applications of evolutionary understanding are important to our current programs and policies for infectious disease surveillance, gene-environment interactions, and health disparities globally.cultural evolution | ecogenetics | genome mapping | susceptibility to infection | Western diet P ublic health practice and public health research focus on protecting, enhancing, and understanding the health of communities and populations. The scientific disciplines of epidemiology, environmental and occupational health, and health behavior address causes and risk factors of disease over time and space. The substrate for the study of evolution in public health includes international patterns of incidence and prevalence of disease, influences of human and animal behavior, dramatic changes in diet, environmental sources of exposures to infectious agents and chemicals, diverse causes of migration of populations, and climate change. Advances in population genetics and evolutionary biology now facilitate in-depth analysis of gene-environment interactions in human populations and in other species whose life cycles are intimately linked with our own. This Perspectives article addresses principles and examples of the roles of infectious diseases, cultural/social factors, and diet and metabolism in evolution and public health. It emphasizes implications for gene-environment interactions, global health, health disparities, and health policy.

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“…There has been a recent growth in exploration of the ways in which global environmental changes may affect human health (Last 1993;McMichael 1993aMcMichael , 1993b. Particular attention has been paid to the likely consequences of anthropogenic climate change via both direct and indirect effects.…”

Section: Global Climate Change and Human Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Environmental Change and Human Health:. Impact Assessment, Population Vulnerability, and Research Priorities

Andreae

Confalonieri²,

McMichael

et al. 1997

Ecosystem Health

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The scale of environmental hazards to human population health is increasing. For the first time, the human species is perturbing various natural systems at the global level. Over many millennia, humans have often degraded local ecosystems, and their societies then usually suffered or moved. What differs in today's world is the global, systemic, scale of human impact. This reflects the aggregate impact of rapidly increasing population size and an energy-intensive high-throughput linear consumer economy. In consequence, we are now encountering anthropogenic changes in the composition of the world's lower and middle atmospheres and the worldwide depletion of other natural systems (e.g., soil fertility, aquifers, ocean fisheries, and biological diversity).We have long overlooked the fundamental infrastructural importance to human health of the biosphere's natural systems. Yet, these are the life-support systems upon which the sustained health of populations depends. In many respects, the potential health risks from global environmental change are therefore qualitatively different from the well-known, locally confined environmental risks to health from direct-acting toxic pollutants.Disruption of natural biophysical systems jeopardizes human health by a range of direct and indirect, immediate and delayed mechanisms. These entail major implications for the longer-term sustainability of human population health. We therefore must extend our health risk assessment concepts and methods to accommodate scenariobased forecasting of health impacts. There is need for an expanded transdisciplinary research effort that would include the development of new and better modelling and predictive techniques. These research methods and the communication of research results to public and policymaker must accommodate an unusual mix of complexity, uncertainty, and futurism.The extent and profile of health impacts from global environmental change will vary around the world. In general, poor, restricted, and isolated populations will be the most vulnerable. The combined impacts of climate change, freshwater shortages, and land degradation may impair agricultural productivity most in subtropical and semi-arid regions where food insecurity is already prevalent. Clearly, there are complex political and ethical challenges that accompany the challenges to science.

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Global Change: Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Warming, and Public Health

Cited by 10 publications

References 22 publications

Enhancing the Teaching of Evolution in Public Health

Enhancing the Teaching of Evolution in Public Health

Evolution and public health

Global Environmental Change and Human Health:. Impact Assessment, Population Vulnerability, and Research Priorities

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