Climate Change and Potential Health Effects in Mexican Children (original) (raw)

The Impact of Climate Change on Child Health

Ambulatory Pediatrics, 2003

Human activity has contributed to climate change. The relationship between climate and child health has not been well investigated. This review discusses the role of climate change on child health and suggests 3 ways in which this relationship may manifest. First, environmental changes associated with anthropogenic greenhouse gases can lead to respiratory diseases, sunburn, melanoma, and immunosuppression. Second, climate change may directly cause heat stroke, drowning, gastrointestinal diseases, and psychosocial maldevelopment. Third, ecologic alterations triggered by climate change can increase rates of malnutrition, allergies and exposure to mycotoxins, vector-borne diseases (malaria, dengue, encephalitides, Lyme disease), and emerging infectious diseases. Further climate change is likely, given global industrial and political realities. Proactive and preventive physician action, research focused on the differential effects of climate change on subpopulations including children, and policy advocacy on the individual and federal levels could contain climate change and inform appropriate prevention and response.

Global Climate Change and Children's Health

PEDIATRICS, 2007

There is broad scientific consensus that Earth's climate is warming rapidly and at an accelerating rate. Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, are very likely (Ͼ90% probability) to be the main cause of this warming. Climatesensitive changes in ecosystems are already being observed, and fundamental, potentially irreversible, ecological changes may occur in the coming decades. Conservative environmental estimates of the impact of climate changes that are already in process indicate that they will result in numerous health effects to children. The nature and extent of these changes will be greatly affected by actions taken or not taken now at the global level. Physicians have written on the projected effects of climate change on public health, but little has been written specifically on anticipated effects of climate change on children's health. Children represent a particularly vulnerable group that is likely to suffer disproportionately from both direct and indirect adverse health effects of climate change. Pediatric health care professionals should understand these threats, anticipate their effects on children's health, and participate as children's advocates for strong mitigation and adaptation strategies now. Any solutions that address climate change must be developed within the context of overall sustainability (the use of resources by the current generation to meet current needs while ensuring that future generations will be able to meet their needs). Pediatric health care professionals can be leaders in a move away from a traditional focus on disease prevention to a broad, integrated focus on sustainability as synonymous with health. This policy statement is supported by a technical report that examines in some depth the nature of the problem of climate change, likely effects on children's health as a result of climate change, and the critical importance of responding promptly and aggressively to reduce activities that are contributing to this change. BACKGROUND "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal." 1 According to the National Climatic Data Center, all records indicate that during the past century, global surface temperatures have increased at a rate near 0.6°C per century (1.1°F per century); this trend has been 3 times larger since 1976. 2 Human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, has very likely (Ͼ90% probability) driven this rise by greatly increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). 1 There is strong consensus among expert scientists that Earth is undergoing rapid, global climate change, 1,3 although there remains uncertainty about how rapidly and extensively the climate will change in the future. Overall scientific predictions agree, however, that temperatures and sea level will continue to rise

Child Health and Survival in a Changing Climate: Vulnerability, Mitigation, and Adaptation

Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat, 2015

The effects of climate change include increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events as well as adverse changes in air pollution, increased spread of climate-sensitive disease, and heightened food insecurity. All of these effects are predicted to have a significant impact on global mortality and morbidity, and the available evidence indicates that children are most at risk. In order to protect child health, immediate action to both mitigate further climate change and adapt to existing and expected impacts is required. This chapter reviews the existing literature on the health impacts of climate change on children. It identifies children as key stakeholders in action and decision-making for mitigation and adaptation at a variety of scales. It also highlights how child participation in research, policy, and practice will increase the effectiveness and sustainability of solutions for addressing the health impacts of climate change. The chapter concludes with a call for the climate change community to make a more concerted effort to incorporate the needs and capacities of children into its core agenda.

Climate change and human health in Latin America: drivers, effects, and policies

Regional Environmental Change, 2006

Many people would be increasingly affected by living under critical conditions in Latin America if, as expected, global warming aggravates disease and pest transmission processes. Heat waves and air pollution would increase heat-related diseases and illness episodes in large cities. Fire smoke has been associated with irritation of the throat, lung and eyes, and respiratory problems. Climate extreme increases associated with climate change would cause physical damage, population displacement, and adverse effects on food production, freshwater availability and quality. It would also increase the risks of infectious and vector-borne diseases. Climate change impacts the geographical range, seasonality, and the incidence rate of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria. Climate-related ecological changes may expand cholera transmission, particularly among populations in low-laying tropical coastal areas. El Niño conditions may affect the incidence of infectious diseases, such as malaria. Ocean warming would increase temperature-sensitive toxins produced by phytoplankton, which could cause more frequent contamination of seafood. A clearer understanding on the current role of climate change in disease patterns will be able to improve forecasts of potential future impacts of projected climate change and support action to reduce such impacts.

Climate changes reproductive and children’s health: a review of risks, exposures, and impacts

Pediatric Research

Our climate has significantly changed, exceeding what the world has experienced over the last 650,000 years, and has been cited as the most significant health threat of the twenty-first century. Climate change is impacting health in unprecedented ways. While everyone is vulnerable to the health impacts associated with climate change, children are disproportionately affected because of their physical and cognitive immaturity. Climate change impacts that include rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising sea levels, and increasing carbon dioxide levels are associated with a wide range of health issues in children such as asthma, allergies, vector-borne diseases, malnutrition, low birth weight, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pediatric health providers play a critical role in advancing the science and translating findings to improve public understanding about the link between climate changes and children's health, and establishing strategies to address these issues. This review will provide an overview of research exploring the impact of climate change on children's health impacts, as well as provide recommendations for pediatric research moving forward.

Long-Term Effect of Climate Change on Health: Evidence from Heat Waves in Mexico

This paper uses year-to-year variation in temperature to estimate the long-term effects of climate change on health outcomes in Mexico. Combining temperature data at the district level and three rounds of nationally representative household surveys, an individual's health as an adult is matched with the history of heat waves from birth to adulthood. A flexible econometric model is used to identify critical health periods with respect to temperature. It is shown that exposure to higher temperatures early in life has negative consequences on adult height. Most importantly, the effects are concentrated at the times where children experience growth spurts: infancy and adolescence. The robustness of these findings is confirmed when using health outcomes derived from accidents, which are uncorrelated with early exposure to high temperatures.

Climate change and its impact on young children

Every Child, 2007

In a very short space of time, global warming and climate change has 'hit the radar' at all levels: individually, locally, nationally and internationally. In Australia, attention to climate change and its environmental, economic and social impacts has been spurred on by deepening concerns about diminishing water supplies, rising fuel costs and uncertainty about future energy supplies.

Pediatric societies’ declaration on responding to the impact of climate change on children

The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 2021

Children worldwide are demanding their views on climate change be heard, a right guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. They have reason to be concerned-the 2019 Lancet Countdown and multiple other publications document the profound vulnerability of infants and children to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on their health and well-being.