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OTTAWA – A new report by one of the world's most prestigious medical journals says Canada's inability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not only kills the planet, it is killing Canadians.
The report on the effects of climate change on health, published Wednesday in The Lancet, concludes that fighting climate change effectively would be the greatest thing governments can do to improve human health in this century.
Chronic exposure to air pollution resulting from activities that generate greenhouse gas emissions kills an estimated 7,142 Canadians per year and 2.1 million people worldwide.
Heat waves, forest fires, floods and major storms are responsible for more deaths and long-term illnesses, but little data is available on their numbers.
The report's first recommendation is simply to track the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths in Canada, which is not done at all in most provinces.
Last summer, public health officials in Quebec said that 90 people died during a heat wave. The south and east of Ontario have suffered the same heat, but Ontario does not follow the same way heat-related deaths. Nobody knew how many people had been affected in the neighboring province.
Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency physician from Yellowknife who wrote the Canadian section of the report, said the world was facing an increase in temperature that we could not adapt to, resulting in more deaths and more deaths. of diseases.
The average temperature on the surface of the planet is already about 1 ° C higher than it was in the pre-industrial era and if we continue to emit greenhouse gases at current levels, the increase will be between 2.6 and 4.8 ° C by the end of the century.
"We are not sure we can adapt to this in a way that allows us to maintain the same civilizational stability and health care systems we are used to," said Howard. "We are not just talking about maintaining the level of disease, we are talking about our ability to provide health care."
Fine particles of pollutants in the air cause premature death from heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, acute respiratory infections and chronic lung disease. More frequent heat waves contribute to heat stroke and more intense pollen seasons, which can aggravate allergies and asthma, as well as forest fires.
Warmer temperatures also help insects to grow, which means more insect-borne diseases. The incidence of Lyme disease, transmitted by ticks, increased by 50% in 2017 alone.
Howard said that a new emerging term among mental health professionals is "eco-anxiety," describing the mental stress caused by climate-related changes – or even just the threat that they might arise.
Public health officials will have to adapt their responses to dangers such as forest fires, because the increasing intensity and frequency of these fires means that many more communities have stale air much longer, she said. Most health authorities advise people to stay indoors on smoke days, but when these periods last for several weeks, this is not a lasting solution.
In San Francisco this month, smoke from forest fires has made it one of the most dangerous fires in the world. The doctors told people to stay inside and wear masks if they had to go outside.
Howard said work is underway to improve smoke forecasts, so people can know when they can expect to go outside, exercise and sun safely during warnings. of prolonged smoke.
She said recent summers have alerted Canadians to climate change, with record-breaking forest fire seasons in British Columbia in 2017 and 2018, a drought on the Prairies, heat waves in central Canada, and flooding communities almost from one ocean to another. She said some people think it's a new normal – but that's not the case.
"It's worse in 10 years," she said.
Howard said that if we do not intensify our efforts, the change in the world would be considerable, with more wars and migrations.
"I am an emergency doctor and I work there because it is an emergency," she said.
Mia Rabson, Canadian Press
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