Climate Change and Human Health

Abstract

WHO news Climate change and human health Protecting health against the effects of climate change will be next year's theme for World Health Day (7 April 2008) and WHO's 60th anniversary celebrations. Carlos Corvalan talks about WHO's work with countries to help them tackle those effects and how climate change affects people's health.

Environmental responsibility in hospital care: Findings from a qualitative study

“…In line with earlier studies, education plays a key role [2,45] and educating health care professionals has been found to produce clear improvements in waste management. [29] Education should not be limited to just waste issues.…”

“…The wider topic of environmental responsibility should be included in nursing and medical curriculums to help health care professionals to understand the connection between their practices, resource scarcity and climate change. [2,45,46] Information needs to be up-to-date, [16] usable, interesting, reasonable and easy to understand. This relates to both formal and in-service training.…”

“…[10][11][12][13] However, it has been identified as an essential part of patient care from a health promotion perspective, [1,8,9,11] and the role that healthcare professionals play in tackling environmental issues has been emphasized. [2,9,14] Indeed, environmental responsibility refers to people's behavior, [3,4] but it also includes the actions taken by organizations to protect the world around them. [4,[15][16][17] Environmental responsibility is also an important part of occupational wellbeing, as chemical control protects workers' health.…”

“…[1] This burden refers to indirect emissions which are created by various activities carried out by staff working in diverse roles and departments, as they consume a wide range of medical products, foods, electricity, water, and transportation in hospital care. [2,3] Staff indirectly contributes to global warming, as producing energy and materials, transporting [4] and incinerating waste [1] produce emissions, such as carbon dioxide, that contribute to climate change. These emissions accelerate global warming, which causes irreversible changes in ecosystems, such as drought and rising ocean temperatures.…”

Building a Leadership Culture for Environmental Health in a Nurse-Led Clinic

“…In the context of health, leaders in care settings can address climate change internally by reducing their energy expenditure and waste production (Anderko, Chalupka, & Gray, 2013;Johnson, 2012;Munoz, 2012). On an external level, health care professionals can lead action by informing patients and the public of the health impacts of climate change (Health Care Without Harm, 2015;Sayre, Rhazi, Carpenter, & Hughes, 2010).…”