Climate Change And Public Health Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthe

Question: Discuss about the Climate Change And Public Health. Answer: Introduction Climate change has a negative impact on public health. Increased temperatures, extreme weather conditions, the rise in sea levels, and droughts are some of the negative outcomes of climate change that is affecting access to clean water and safe working environments. Paul, Diffenbaugh, and Kilpatrick (2017) warns on the coming public health calamity caused by climate change. Therefore, immediate action needs to be taken to prevent further degradation of the environment to prevent the heat that relates to with climate change. Having this in mind, the essay will discuss on how climate change is affecting public health and the expected public health challenges. How Climate Change is Affecting Public Health Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, and weather patterns changing. Extreme weather is becoming more frequent and intense, all this have detrimental effects on public health. The extreme heat leading to a significant increase in temperatures is contributing directly to respiratory and heart diseases, especially among the older population. For instance, in the heat of summer, Europe recorded approximately 70, 000 deaths. Further the high temperatures of raises pollens and many other allergens exacerbating respiratory and heart diseases (Perera 2017). In addition, the increase in rainfall caused by climatic change is affecting the supply of fresh water. The lack of fresh and clean water compromises hygiene increasing the risk of diarrhea that is killing around 750, 000 children under the age of five each year. Besides, the melting of polar ice is causing an increase in the volume of water bodies causing floods. Such floods contaminate clean water supplies increasing the chances of water- borne diseases. Further, the floods act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which leads to increase in Malaria cases (Lewis 2017). The Expected Public Health Challenges Climate change has posed major challenges in public health. Some of the expected public health challenges include an increase in waterborne and foodborne diseases, vector- borne illness, allergic and respiratory disorders, malnutrition, collective violence, heat disorders, and mental issues are some of the public health issues that will increase due to climate change. Further, vulnerable populations like minority groups, the poor, old people, children, and women are more at a disadvantaged position due to the health impact of climate change. Another expected public health challenge is widespread of diseases like Rift Valley fever, Malaria, West Nile virus, and encephalitis, this widespread is caused by the climatic changes (Kjellstrom, Briggs, Freyberg, Lemke, Otto and Hyatt 2016). Conclusion From the discussion, it is evident that climate change is the major cause of health related problems like respiratory and heart diseases; this poses a major health challenge to the public health. Individual choices and policies can reduce the detrimental effects of climate change producing health benefits. For instance, households and companies can adopt the use of clean energy, adopt safe use public transport, and adopt active means of movement like walking and cycling as alternatives to private vehicles. Therefore, if such measures are to be implemented, we could minimize carbon emissions and air pollutions, which is the leading cause of death. References Kjellstrom, T., Briggs, D., Freyberg, C., Lemke, B., Otto, M. and Hyatt, O., 2016. Heat, human performance, and occupational health: a key issue for the assessment of global climate change impacts.Annual review of public health,37, pp.97-112. Lewis, S., 2017. Extreme climate change: Damage and responsibility.AQ-Australian Quarterly,88(1), p.3. Perera, F.P., 2017. Multiple threats to child health from fossil fuel combustion: Impacts of air pollution and climate change.Environmental health perspectives,125(2), p.141. Paull, L.D., Diffenbaugh, N.S. and Kilpatrick, A.M., 2017, February. Drought and immunity determine the intensity of West Nile virus epidemics and climate change impacts. InProc. R. Soc. B(Vol. 284, No. 1848, p. 20162078). The Royal Society.