How climate change will affect your health

A new report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of serious consequences if governments do not make "swift, profound and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" to stem the global warming. But the planet is not alone in being threatened by rising temperatures; your health could also be in danger.

Climate change can affect you in six different ways, whether it's an insect-borne disease or type 2 diabetes.

An increase in mosquitoes and ticks carrying disease

Warm, humid climates are an ideal breeding ground for creatures. Experts say that a global warming could increase the risk of vector-borne diseases transmitted by ticks, mosquitoes or other organisms.

In a report published in 2017, the Consortium of the Medical Society on Climate and Health warned that "mosquitoes carrying diseases such as West Nile virus and dengue fever are developing under increasingly is to be feared that malaria will not reappear in the United States.

Environmental changes affect not only the distribution of insects such as mosquitoes, but also the speed with which viruses replicate in them and the lifespan of insects. All of this may have contributed to the recent outbreaks of Zika virus, according to the CDC.

In the United States, more than 2,400 pregnant women have been tested positive in Zika since 2015, and Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain fever, and other vector-borne diseases have increased. According to a report by the CDC, only 27,388 such cases were reported in 2004, but this number increased to 96,075 in 2016.

Contaminated water sources and dangerous bacterial infections

Extreme weather and precipitation have contributed to the spread of bacterial infections through contaminated water, especially in the summer. Warmer temperatures will only make these storms worse.

Dr. Mona Sarfaty, director of the climate and health program at George Mason University's Climate Change Communication Center, said that "an increase in rainfall leading to floods can result in flooding. have a mix of stormwater and sewer that causes bacterial contamination in the water. . "

This contamination can also affect crops and contribute to foodborne illness. "Heavy showers and floods can spread fecal bacteria and viruses in fields where food is growing," says a report from the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.

"The warmer seawater also makes a difference," said Sarfaty. "Along the coast, there are cases of bacterial contamination in shellfish during the warmer months, which makes these waters more likely to cause infection when people swim there, especially when it comes to swimming. They have open cuts in the skin.

An increase in mental health problems

Even a modest increase in temperatures is associated with an increase in mental health problems, according to a study published this year with nearly 2 million US residents. The research, published in PNAS, looked at different cities and showed that warming of only 1 degree over five years was linked to a 2% increase in mental health problems.

Using a different approach, the study also showed that an increase in average monthly temperature to more than 30 degrees Celsius, from an average of 25 to 30, was correlated with a 0.5% increase in health problems. mental.

This may seem like a slight change, but Nick Obradovich, lead author of the study and scientist at MIT's Media Lab, noted that these findings, if consistent across the country, "would produce an estimated 2 million more people reporting mental health problems ".

These challenges can become deadly. A study published this year in the journal Nature Climate Change revealed that an increase of 1 degree Celsius in monthly temperatures was correlated with a 0.68% increase in the suicide rate in the United States. With the help of these data, researchers estimate that climate change could be associated with more than 14,000 suicides by 2050.

Although additional research is needed to determine the exact causes of this increase in suicides, the study's lead author stated that economic factors or biological changes may be the cause.

"Worsening economic conditions may also worsen mental health," said Marshall Burke, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. There may also be "a plausible biological link between temperature, temperature regulation and how the brain regulates its own emotion."

An increase in type 2 diabetes

Rising temperatures are associated with an increase in type 2 diabetes, according to a 2017 study published in the journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care. However, the researchers only studied the correlation between temperature and diabetes. The study therefore did not establish that temperatures were necessarily at the origin of the disease.

Nevertheless, the researchers found that the diabetes rate increased by about 4% for each degree of warming in the United States. Globally, glucose intolerance increased by 0.17% per degree of warming.

The lead author of the study, Lisanne Blauw, a researcher at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said that "a 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature could represent more than 100,000 new cases of diabetes a year, just in the United States.

Although calorie consumption and obesity are probably the main risk factors for diabetes, the study assumes that warmer temperatures could reduce the activity of brown adipose tissue, which burns and generates them. heat in cold weather.

"In warmer climates, brown fat may be less activated," Blauw said, "which can cause insulin resistance and diabetes."

Respiratory problems and stroke

Most scientists agree that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide contribute to global warming, but these emissions do not only harm the planet. Pollutants from fossil fuels can also generate a mixture of solid particles and droplets of liquid in the atmosphere that can enter your lungs and even your bloodstream.

This mixture, called particles, can aggravate asthma, decrease lung function and increase the risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke, according to a study published last year in The Lancet. This same study estimated that more than 8 million people die prematurely because of air pollution each year.

A warming planet also means more forest fires, which regularly emit smoke, further aggravating the quality of the air. A 2011 National Research Council report revealed that a warming of only 1 degree Celsius could result in a 400% increase in area burned by forest fires.

But it's not just smoke and pollutants that you inhale; it's also pollen. The increase in carbon dioxide can cause plants to produce more pollen, which could explain why the pollen season seems to be degrading each year.

A 2012 study presented at the American College of Allergy conference, Asthma and Immunology estimated that the number of pollens should reach 21,735 grains per cubic meter in 2040. By 2000, this number was only from 8,455.

More car accidents and fewer food inspections

Even a small change in climate can have an impact on human behavior, resulting in an increase in fatal car accidents and a decrease in the number of food safety inspections, according to a study published this year in PNAS.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 70 million police stops, over 500,000 traffic accidents and nearly 13 million food safety violations.

They found that above 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit), the police made fewer stops in traffic, which can contribute to dangerous driving conditions. According to the study, an increase in maximum temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius resulted in a 1.5% decrease in traffic stops, and this same temperature change has magnified the risk of fatal car crash. Half a percentage point.

The researchers also found that health officials were less likely to conduct food safety inspections when temperatures exceeded 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit). Of the 750,000 restaurants and food production facilities studied, they found that a 10-degree increase in temperature resulted in 8,000 fewer inspections per day.

However, during the inspection of these facilities, warmer temperatures resulted in more infractions, possibly because pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella grow faster in warmer weather.

Obradovich, a researcher at MIT Media Lab and co-author of the study, said that "hot temperatures are fundamentally harmful to human functioning," he said, "the climate affects the way which we accomplish our tasks. go about our daily lives and the risks we face. "