Health/Climate Tutorial
Both land use and climate can affect people's health. The Health/Climate tutorial summarizes what is known about how climate affects human health; a companion Land/Climate tutorial is being developed.
Relationship between human health and climate change
The health/climate tutorial covers what is known about how climate affects people's health now and how climate change might affect future health. The current climate and human health have some clear interactions. For particular diseases, climate contributes to the timing of outbreaks, or restricts their geographical distribution. Specific types of accidents are associated with different seasons or types of weather. It is reasonable to expect future changes in climate to affect these relationships, sometimes making the consequences for human health better, sometimes worse.
This section of the website discusses important health and climate topics for the CARA region, answering the questions:
- What is the nature of the health impact in the CARA region?
- What is the current distribution and risk of these impacts in the CARA region?
- How can you protect yourself from heat related health problems, cold related health problems, flood related health problems, hurricanes, tornadoes, high winds and lightning?
- What is the causal linkage with current climate?
- What is the expected effect of climate change on heat-related injury and death, cold-related injury and death, injury and death from flooding, and from violent storms and high winds?
- What are some Community and Governmental action options for heat-related health problems, flood-related health problems and storm-related health problems?
What about weather-related health effects?
Illnesses and accidents can be associated with extreme weather events. Around 90% of all presidentially declared national disasters across the United States are weather-related. These cause around 500 deaths and nearly $14 billion in damage per year. Each year, Americans cope with an average of 10,000 thunderstorms, 2,500 floods and 1,000 tornadoes.
Follow the link below to learn more about how extreme weather is related to health impacts, how changes in climate might affect those health impacts, what you can do to protect yourself, and what actions communities or local governments might take.
Additional information on the health effects of extreme weather events
What about the health effects of air pollution?
Follow the link below to learn more about the effect of climate on air pollution; the expected effect of climate change on air pollution; how to protect yourself from air pollution; and community and governmental action options.
Additional information on the health effects of air pollution
What about vector-borne diseases?
Vector-borne diseases are passed to humans by the bite of blood-feeding fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes. Examples include Lyme disease and West Nile disease. Click on this section for more about the relation between climate and vector-borne diseases, how climate change might affect their prevalence, what you can do to protect yourself, and actions communities and governments could take.
Additional information on the health effects of vector-borne diseases
Recommended Reading
The information in this section focuses on health issues and impacts in the CARA region. For a more global perspective, see:
Climate Change and Human Health: Risks and Responses (2003) A. J. McMichael, D. H. Campbell-Lendrom, C. F.Corvalán, K. L. Ebi, A. K. Githeko, J. D. Scheraga, and A. Woodward, editors, World Health Organization, Geneva.
Available online at: http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/cchhsummary/en/
For more specifically about the health dimension of adaptation to climate change, see:
Methods of Assessing Human Health Vulnerability and Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change (2003) S. Kovats, K. L. Ebi and B. Menne, lead authors, Health and Environmental Change, Series No. 1, World Health Organization, Geneva.
Available online at: http://www.euro.who.int/globalchange/Publications/20031125_1