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LONDON (REUTERS) – Climate change is making more and more people vulnerable to heat exposure, making them more vulnerable to heart and kidney disease, heat stress and stress. other deadly factors related to heat, scientists announced Wednesday, November 28.
The effects of global warming are particularly severe for urban and aging populations, as well as for people with chronic diseases. And Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean are more vulnerable than Africa and Southeast Asia because of the large number of elderly people living in densely populated cities, said the researchers in a report. analysis published in the medical journal The Lancet.
"Trends in climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerabilities point to an unacceptable risk to health today and in the future," said Dr. Hilary Graham, a professor at the University. York, who led the work.
The Lancet countdown on health and climate change has mobilized the work of 27 academic institutions in areas ranging from health to engineering, through ecology, as well as expertise United Nations and intergovernmental agencies worldwide.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change is affecting many factors affecting health, including the quality of air and water, food and water. shelters.
He estimates that between 2030 and 2050, climate change could cause an additional 250,000 deaths a year due to malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria and heat stress.
The report revealed that in 2017, some 157 million vulnerable people were exposed to heatwaves. Some 153 billion hours of work were lost last year due to heat exposure, the statement said.
He also revealed that slight changes in temperature and precipitation can cause major changes in the transmission of certain infectious diseases transmitted by water and mosquitoes, such as cholera, malaria and dengue fever.
Dr. Howard Frumkin, Climate and Health Specialist at the Wellcome Trust, who partially funded the work, said the findings were clear.
"Climate change has a direct impact on our health, for example, causing wildfires, crop failures, infectious diseases and loss of life around the world," he said. reduce the potentially devastating impact on our planet and our health ".
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