Main description:

Pulmonary physicians and scientists currently have minimal capacity to respond to climate change and its impacts on health. The extent to which climate change influences the prevalence and incidence of respiratory morbidity remains largely undefined. However, evidence is increasing that climate change does drive respiratory disease onset and exacerbation as a result of increased ambient and indoor air pollution, desertification, heat stress, wildfires, and the geographic and temporal spread of pollens, molds and infectious agents. Preliminary research has revealed climate change to have potentially direct and indirect adverse impacts on respiratory health. Published studies have linked climate change to increases in respiratory disease, including the following: changing pollen releases impacting asthma and allergic rhinitis, heat waves causing critical care-related diseases, climate driven air pollution increases, exacerbating asthma and COPD, desertification increasing particulate matter (PM) exposures, and climate related changes in food and water security impacting infectious respiratory disease through malnutrition (pneumonia, upper respiratory infections). High level ozone and ozone exposure has been linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, and acute lower respiratory infection.

Global Climate Change and Public Health is an important new volume based on the research, findings, and discussions of US and international experts on respiratory health and climate change. This volume addresses issues of major importance to respiratory health and fills a major gap in the current literature.

The ATS Climate Change and Respiratory Health Workshop was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 15, 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to address the threat to global respiratory health posed by climate change. The workshop was attended by domestic and international experts as well as representatives of international respiratory societies and key US federal agencies. Dr. Pinkerton and Dr. Rom, the editors of this title, were co-chairs of the Climate Change Workshop and Symposium.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Consequences of Global Warming to the Public's Health

William N. Rom and Kent Pinkerton

2. Climate Variability and Change Data and Information for Global Public Health

Juli Trtanj

3. Climate Change: Overview of Data Sources, Observed and Predicted Temperature Changes, and Impacts on Public and Environmental Health

David H. Levinson and Christopher J. Fettig

4. Eyewitness to Global Warming

Will Steger and Nicole Rom

5. California and Climate Changes

Rupa Basu

6. Heat Waves and Rising Temperatures: Human Health Impacts and the Determinants of Vulnerability

Helene G. Margolis

7. Climate, Air Quality and Allergy: Emerging Methods for Detecting Linkages

Patrick L. Kinney, Perry E. Sheffield, and Kate R. Weinberger

8. The Human Health Co-benefits of Air Quality Improvements Associated with Climate Change Mitigation

George D. Thurston and Michelle L. Bell

9. Asthma, Hayfever, Pollen, and Climate Change

Anthony M. Szema

10. Dengue Fever and Climate Change

Lauren Cromar and Kevin Cromar

11. Impact of Climate Change on Vector-Borne Disease in the Amazon

William Pan, OraLee Branch, and Benjamin Zaitchik

12. Climate Variability and Change: Food, Water and Societal Impacts

Jonathan Patz

13. Household Air Pollution from Cookstoves: Impacts on Health and Climate

William J Martin II, John W. Hollingsworth, and Veerabhadran Ramanathan

14. Biomass Fuel and Lung Diseases: An Indian Perspective

Rajendra Prasad and Rajiv Garg

15. The effects of climate change and air pollution on children and mothers' health

Roya Kelishadi and Parinaz Poursafa

16. Climate Change and Public Health in Small Island States and Caribbean Countries

Muge Akpinar-Elci and Hugh Sealy

17. Global Climate Change, Desertification, and Its Consequences in Turkey and the Middle East

Hasan Bayram and Ayse Bilge OEzturk

18. Assessing the Health Risks of Climate Change

Kristie Ebi

19. Federal Programs in Climate Change and Health Research

Maya Levine and John Balbus

20. Management of Climate Change Adaptation at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jeremy Hess, Gino Marinucci, Paul J. Schramm, Arie Manangan, and George Luber

21. Public Health and Climate Programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Erika N. Sasser and C.A. (Andy) Miller

22. California's Cap-and-Trade Program

John R. Balmes