There is increasing understanding, globally, that climate change and increased pollution will have a profound and mostly harmful effect on human health. This review brings together international experts to describe both the direct (such as heat waves) and indirect (such as vector-borne disease incidence) health impacts of climate change. These impacts vary depending on vulnerability (i.e., existing diseases) and the international, economic, political, and environmental context. This unique review also expands on these issues to address a third category of potential longer-term impacts on global health: famine, population dislocation, and environmental justice and education. This scholarly resource explores these issues fully, linking them to global health in urban and rural settings in developed and developing countries. The review finishes with a practical discussion of action that health professionals around the world in our field can yet take.
Human health is increasingly threatened by rapid and widespread changes in the environment and climate, including rising temperatures, air and water pollution, disease vector migration, floods, and droughts. In the United States, many medical schools, the American Medical Association, and the National Academy of Sciences have published calls for physicians and physicians-in-training to develop a basic knowledge of the science of climate change and an awareness of the associated health risks. The authors—all medical students and educators—argue for the expeditious redesign of medical school curricula to teach students to recognize, diagnose, and treat the many health conditions exacerbated by climate change as well as understand public health issues. In this Invited Commentary, the authors briefly review the health impacts of climate change, examine current climate change course offerings and proposals, and describe the rationale for promptly and comprehensively including climate science education in medical school curricula. Efforts in training physicians now will benefit those physicians’ communities whose health will be impacted by a period of remarkable climate change. The bottom line is that the health effects of climate reality cannot be ignored, and people everywhere must adapt as quickly as possible.
Air pollution is a leading cause of death globally and has resulted in the loss of millions of healthy years of life. Moreover, the health burden has fallen disproportionately upon people in many low‐ and middle‐income countries, where air quality continues to deteriorate. To assist authorities and civil society in improving air quality, World Health Organization has published the first global update to its 2005 air quality guidelines based on a significantly improved body of evidence. To facilitate the implementation of the World Health Organization Global Air Quality Guideline recommendations, this article summarizes the purpose and rationale of the quantitative air quality guidelines and interim target levels for six key pollutants: particulate matter 2.5, particulate matter 10, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide. In addition, good practice statements are established for the management of pollutants of concern that lack sufficient evidence to substantiate numerical targets.
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