World Health Day 2008: Addressing the effects of climate change and protecting human health

theto "Eliminate the Effects of Climate Change,to protect humanhealth," will be the theme of next year's World Health Day(
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April 7, 000) and the 60th anniversary of the World Health OrganizationCarlos Corvalan recently gave an interview to the World Health OrganizationCarlos Corvalan is an environmental epidemiologistholds a Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Sydney and a PhD in Environmental Health from nijmegen University in the Netherlandswho entered the World Health Organization (
WHO) in 1993, he was the editor and author of The World Health Organization's Environmental Health Decision-making: From Evidence to Action, the Who Report Climate Change and Human Health: Crisis and Response, and the World Health Organization report Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Health Synthesis, which the World Health Organization made for the Millennium Ecosystem ConferenceHe is also a co-author of a recent World Health Organization report on the prevention of environmentallydiseasesOver the years, he has organized seminars to promote awareness of the health effects of climate change among officials and experts in the health sector and other government departments and to take action to protect human healthBorn in Chile, Corvalan is also coordinator of the World Health Organization's Geneva-based Health Environmental Intervention Project Q: Do we take some effective measures to help member countries adapt to the negative impacts of climate change on human health? A: Yes, we have taken action, and we have taken a lot of action We help identify their vulnerabilities and responses to climate change adaptation by working with Member States For example, the World Health Organization has helped member countries establish early warning systems for heat waves, which can help prepare the region in early warning in areas where diseases are highly caused by rising temperatures The safe use of wastewater in water-scarce areas can also be an early warning This is just the tip of the iceberg for what we need to do We must address the problems posed by climate change in terms of health and safety, water safety, food safety and energy safety Q: There is a lively discussion on climate change, but there is little mention of health issues Is the World Health Organization too slow in this regard? A: Despite the early actions of the World Health Organization in this area, health issues have not received sufficient attention when discussing global action, such as at the united nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting (
UNFCCC) Many of the leading global climate change experts do not yet know much about what the World Health Organization is doing So far, the World Health Organization has not sited in a critical position to come up with the right proposal But everything is changing rapidly, and you can now see that the World Health Organization has taken a key leadership role in global climate change Climate change has been mentioned on the main health agenda of Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, which will have a significant positive impact on the protection of human health Q: Are we fully aware of the impact of climate change on human health? A: We still have a lot of unclear, but what we know is enough to take action to protect health Let's look at a simple example of a heat wave Heat waves have killed many people, and climate change has brought more of the extreme events expected 2
003 European heat wave that killed tens of thousands of people, we have gradually established early warning systems, protected human lives, and possible action Early warning mechanisms are also used for hurricane risk warnings in the Caribbean and for sudden flooding warnings for glacial lakes, caused by melting glaciers due to warming We also know that malaria and other vector diseases are extremely sensitive to climatic conditions, and that warming can change the distribution of vectors Diarrhoeal diseases in the least developed countries usually increase with the rise in temperature Perhaps the most concerned is the impact of climate change on land, as it directly leads to changes in food production, especially for farmers in natural economic conditions Rising temperatures and water supplies could cost millions of people dearly and have a clear impact on human health Climate change is also important for people who rely on seasonal melting ice and glaciers for drinking and irrigated water So while we don't have the best evidence, the evidence we've got so far can't be ignored, and these predictions and typical examples clearly warn and call for immediate action, and therefore should not ignore the ask: Are people concerned about the impact of climate change on animal health and the impact on human health? A: Of course For example, we know that many countries, particularly in Africa, are very concerned about the impact of climate change on livestock, particularly drought If livestock cannot graze, people lose their economic support, and for some people they lose their way to life, which will have an impact on their health We need to do a lot of research in the field of animal health and the relationship between animal health and human health, as well as other climate-related factors on human health, such as land-use changes, water stress, and changes in human ecosystems However, the potential health impact of animal health on humans remains significant There is some debate about the link between climate change and avian flu Although climate change is known to change the timing and geographic patterns of bird reproduction and migration, no link has been found between climate and avian influenza What we know about the effects of small ecological changes is unclear, whether birds and animals are likely to spread new diseases to other animals, and whether they are likely to spread to humans For the interpretation of the various aspects of similar cases--- separate what might be real from various possibilities--- this is a useful way to analyze the relationship between hazard levels and impact levels and to seek intervention for each case Q: How reliable is the information available to us on the health impacts of climate change? A: In the search for evidence, the economic benefits may be a hidden variable that may delay the implementation of the action How reliable was the data on the relationship between smoking and lung cancer in the 1950s? What about the evidence of the stratospheric ozone hole in the 1970s? When it comes to smoking, we have a huge industry trying to convince people that smoking is not a health risk With regard to the increase in ultraviolet light caused by the stratospheric ozone hole, states and industry have taken high measures to eliminate substances in products that can lead to ozone depletion For health departments and individuals, personal protection is relatively inexpensive: for example, avoiding exposure
, wearing a hat
, use a light curtain, etc Countries have taken action to reduce and eliminate ozone-depleting substances, and the health sector has taken action to protect public health Based on what we know so far about climate change and its impact on ecosystems and human health, we should take stronger action on a global scale Indeed, we need more information
more research, but the current information is enough to draw our attention, and we should act before things get worse Q: How many people in the world are suffering from the negative health effects of climate change? A: A few years ago, as part of the World Health Organization's Relative Risk Assessment study, we estimated the health effects of climate change and evaluated mortality and loss of healthy life based on data from 2000 The study is limited to only a few diseases that we include, and in our view, the effects are largely underestimated A total of more than 150,000 deaths worldwide that year were attributed to the increase in temperatures observed in 2000 In terms of loss of health life, the effects of climate change are equivalent to the effects of outdoor air pollution, a health risk factor that has long been studied The most serious effects of climate change (
overall impact, not just health) are likely to occur among vulnerable populations, especially those in Africa Research by the World Health Organization clearly shows that the study found that the most significant impact of climate change occurred in africa children Q: Does the report of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (
IPCC) pay sufficient attention to the health-related health effects of disease? A: Since 1993, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has brought together hundreds of the best scientists and the World Health Organization to participate in and participate in its work Its strengths are concentrated in climate science, extracting information from the world's best research institutions and accumulating relevant knowledge, and carefully assessing the growing number of research projects to identify information that is uncertain, one by one In its most recent report, the IPCC pointed to global warming as a clear and clear truth "Health" accounts for one of more than 40 chapters in three major IPCC reports released this year Therefore, we can say that the IPCC does pay sufficient attention to health issues and gives a brief summary of all relevant current knowledge We now know no more than we have learned from previous IPCC reports, or even more than the first Who report, The Potential Health Effects of Climate Change, mentioned in the first World Health Organization report in 1990 But we are making continuous progress in obtaining evidence, which will give us more confidence in the formulation of the report statement The IPCC also provides "assured" probability assessments for decision makers As a result, the health-related section of the IPCC report is "very confident" that the health effects of climate change will be increasing in all countries and regions, and is "very confident" that more malnutrition and more populations will be affected by climate-related events Thus, from a public health perspective, the IPCC report provides a comprehensive assessment of the newly published literature and a valuable synthesis of the latest available evidence Q: Is it just a sign that governments around the world are starting to act, because they are increasingly expressing concern about climate change and its health impacts? A: Since the 2000
the 1980s, the World Health Organization has been discussing this topic, and we have seen that health departments in different countries are slowly but increasingly concerned about this issue And in recent years that seems to have been broken I think Al Gore's film, The Hard Truth, has impressed many people, and has also led to more and more people asking for information and for the government to take action Stern's review of the economy makes it clear that while action to stabilize climate change is costly, the cost of doing nothing will be even greater in the future Stern also won the Nobel Peace Prize People are thinking about what they can do --- individuals or members of communities or organizations --- to reduce their impact on the environment When it comes to the government level, we need to see a match of their concerns and resource investments, such as investing in clean technologies and intervening locally where climate change is inevitable Actual actions are rare relative to demand, as are the case for the health sector Q: What action has the World Health Organization itself taken to mitigate the negative health effects of climate change? A: Like many other international organizations, the World Health Organization produces large amounts of greenhouse gases A round trip from Europe to Asia has already enabled us to far exceed a one-year acceptable low-carbon release quota So what THE World Health Organization's staff can do seems to be reducing air travel And in fact we can do more, and we can individuals, communities, explain to individual countries that many of the necessary actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are also good for your own health For example, the replacement of clean energy, or the switch to in-carat stakes where it is affordable, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and reduce climate impacts, will also help reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution by 800,000 per year, 1.9 million deaths per year due to physical inactivity, and 1
200 deaths a year from road traffic accidents In the future we will be able to overcome the of climate change and healthier