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Human health to feel impact of warmer future

What effect will climate change have on health in the Pacific? This is the third of a five-part series in which environment reporter Sarah Clarke sets out to provide answers.

Photo: Rising sea levels at Pacific nations like Tuvalu could lead to contaminated water supplies. (Oxfam: Rodney Dekker)

With climate change forecasts showing the Pacific will face hotter days and more extreme weather in the future, climate scientists and medical authorities say the implications could be serious for human health.
The Federal Government's Climate Commission is predicting a warmer Pacific will produce more heart attacks, strokes, exhaustion and more heat-related deaths.
Hotter temperatures also bring a greater chance of more bushfires.
A Climate Commission report warns that could translate to more smoke-induced asthma attacks and burns.
Professor Tony McMichael, from the Australian National University, says medical authorities will struggle to cope with more heatwaves like those seen last week.
"We've had enough experience with one or two severe heatwaves in the last few years to see it doesn't take much to overload the ambulance service, the emergency beds in hospitals and even, I am afraid, the morgue facilities," he said.
And it is not just the heat.
Pacific countries are already copping the brunt of climate change, with water and food problems causing displacement.
The report also says there is the potential for a greater spread of disease transmitting mosquitoes as rainfall patterns change.
"It's not only mosquitoes that will thrive in warmer and wetter conditions but it will also be influenced by their natural host populations before they spill over into humans," he said.
"And that includes malaria if it were reintroduced to Australia, dengue fever, and other other viral diseases ... Japanese encephalitis, which is quite easily spread from Indonesia and PNG down into Australia in a much warmer world, so they are the two types of diseases spread between humans and those spread by mosquitoes."

he climate scientists have also delivered an outlook of more intense storms and extreme weather.
Some of the low-lying pacific nations are considered to already be on the frontline.
Jill Finnane, from the Pacific Calling Partnership which helps communities deal with basic issues like food and water supplies, says water contamination is already a big problem.

Climate change for the Kiribati people is about losing our culture, losing our identity everything that we have. Time is running out with the Kiribati people, we can't wait.

Kiribati resident Maria Simon Chi Fang

"When you get a big storm, you not only get coastal erosion like what we have all seen here in Australia, but because the islands are so long and narrow the water washes straight over, contaminating the well water," she said.
"So the water is then salty and not safe or pleasant to drink so they're experiencing that kind of thing already."
Some Pacific communities say it is not just day-to-day health, it is also their entire livelihood, with some forced to move in search of higher ground.
Maria Simon Chi Fang, from the island nation of Kiribati south of Hawaii, says she is worried about her future in the Pacific.
"Climate change for the Kiribati people is about losing our culture, losing our identity everything that we have," she said.
"Time is running out with the Kiribati people, we can't wait."
This is the third in a five-part series by Sarah Clarke on climate impacts.

• Part 1: How will rising seas affect Australia's homes and infrastructure
• Part 2: What effect will climate change have on agriculture and food production?

Still to come:

• Part 4: How will climate change affect biodiversity and ecosystems? (Coming Thursday)
• Part 5: How will climate change affect Australia's oceans and reefs? (Coming Friday)

Why does EPA evaluate whether children may be at greater health risks than adults?

Almost 500 years ago Paracelsus (1493-1541) wrote: "Dosis facit venenum" or "the dose makes the poison." The relationship between dose and response (health effect) is still one of the most fundamental concepts of toxicology - or is it? For pollutants that act as developmental toxicants, the same dose that may pose little or no risk to an adult can cause drastic effects in a developing fetus or a child. Methyl mercury is but one example of a chemical that is much more toxic early in life. Scientists have become increasingly aware that children may be more vulnerable to environmental exposures than adults because:

• their bodily systems are developing;
• they eat more, drink more, and breathe more in proportion to their body size; and
• their behavior, such as crawling and hand-to-mouth activity, can expose them more to chemicals and microorganisms.

In light of what is now known about the greater susceptibility early in life to some stressors, Executive Order 13045 -- Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks -- was issued in 1997. This Executive Order directs that all federal agencies, including EPA, shall make it a high priority to identify and assess environmental health risks and safety risks that may disproportionately affect children; and shall ensure that their policies, programs, activities, and standards address disproportionate risks to children that result from environmental health risks or safety risks.
Note: To assist scientists in assessing risks specifically to children, EPA has developed A Framework for Assessing Health Risk of Environmental Exposures to Children along with specific guidance to risk assessors including Guidance on Selecting Age Groups for Monitoring and Assessing Child-Hood Exposures to Environmental Contaminants and Supplemental Guidance for Assessing Susceptibility from Early-Life Exposure to Carcinogens.

How does EPA conduct a Human Health Risk Assessment?

Human health risk assessment includes 4 basic steps, and is generally conducted following various EPA guidance documents.

• Planning - Planning and Scoping process
  EPA begins the process of a human health risk assessment with planning and research.
  
  
• Step 1 - Hazard Identification
  Examines whether a stressor has the potential to cause harm to humans and/or ecological systems, and if so, under what circumstances.
  
  
• Step 2 - Dose-Response Assessment
  Examines the numerical relationship between exposure and effects.
  
  
• Step 3 - Exposure Assessment
  Examines what is known about the frequency, timing, and levels of contact with a stressor.
  
  
• Step 4 - Risk Characterization
  Examines how well the data support conclusions about the nature and extent of the risk from exposure to environmental stressors.

Mental health

As many as one in four of us will have some sort of mental health problem in our lives, yet it’s still a taboo subject. It’s important to make sure you keep your emotional and mental health in check and recognise if there’s a problem.

Healthy Living

It's never too late to change your habits, and by establishing a healthy lifestyle now, you'll continue to reap the rewards in the future. Discover the facts behind nutrition so you can make informed choices, understand how BMI, or body mass index, affects you, or take part in our six-week diet and exercise programme.

Human Health

Public health problems caused by environmental contamination and emerging infectious diseases are a growing concern worldwide. These public health threats are affected by the relationship between people and the physical, chemical, and biological nature of our natural environments. Population growth and the associated pressures of development are increasing the difficulties associated with sustaining effective public health practices and policies. Vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, water contamination, airborne contaminants, bioaccumulative contaminants in the food chain, and environmental threats to public health the world over require marshalling of all our scientific knowledge and know-how to develop new solutions. Understanding environmental and ecological health is a prerequisite to protecting public health. As the Nation's natural science agency, USGS can play a significant role in providing scientific knowledge and information that will improve our understanding of the environmental contributions to disease and human health.