Climate Change and Children’s Health—A Call for Research on What Works to Protect Children

Abstract

Climate change is affecting and will increasingly influence human health and wellbeing. Children are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. An extensive literature review regarding the impact of climate change on children’s health was conducted in April 2012 by searching electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science, as well as relevant websites, such as IPCC and WHO. Climate change affects children’s health through increased air pollution, more weather-related disasters, more frequent and intense heat waves, decreased water quality and quantity, food shortage and greater exposure to toxicants. As a result, children experience greater risk of mental disorders, malnutrition, infectious diseases, allergic diseases and respiratory diseases. Mitigation measures like reducing carbon pollution emissions, and adaptation measures such as early warning systems and post-disaster counseling are strongly needed. Future health research directions should focus on: (1) identifying whether climate change impacts on children will be modified by gender, age and socioeconomic status; (2) refining outcome measures of children’s vulnerability to climate change; (3) projecting children’s disease burden under climate change scenarios; (4) exploring children’s disease burden related to climate change in low-income countries; and (5) identifying the most cost-effective mitigation and adaptation actions from a children’s health perspective.

Climate change and respiratory diseases

“…Studies on plant responses to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations indicate that plants exhibit enhanced photosynthesis and reproductive effects and produce more pollen [12]. Elevated carbon dioxide concentration often increases plant leaf biomass and the carbon/nitrogen ratio which can affect not only pollen but also mould [14]. Elevated ambient carbon dioxide levels are associated with increased fungal spore production, another potential asthma trigger [15].…”

“…Some of the observed deaths are due to the fact that, because of an extreme event, people with lung disease had died a few weeks earlier than expected (the so-called ''harvesting effect''). Respiratory diseases similarly increase among children during heat waves [14]. Extreme heat and high humidity trigger asthma symptoms [4].…”

Temperature as a risk factor for hospitalisations among young children in the Mekong Delta area, Vietnam

“…Nevertheless, effects of temperature on children have not been studied adequately 19. A recent review by Xu et al 20 indicated that additional studies need to be conducted to increase knowledge relating the modification roles of gender, age and socioeconomic status in the relationship between climate factors, including temperature and children's health 20. Moreover, most epidemiological studies of elevated temperature on children's health have been carried out in Western countries and in temperate areas,21–25 but little work has been conducted in developing countries and in tropical areas.…”

Reprint of: On the predicted effectiveness of climate adaptation measures for residential buildings

“…While the occurrence of mild winters will decrease the energy demand for heating, the increasing number of hot summers can lead to problems regarding thermal comfort and health of building occupants, and to an increase of energy use in buildings with active cooling systems. The effect of climate change on the additional energy use in buildings in summers, and on increased levels of human morbidity and mortality, has been reported in several publications [6][7][8]. Fig.…”