Climate Change and Human Health Impacts

Climate change won't just impact the natural environment, it will also eventually begin to impact human health, and may already be doing so. A recent report posted on the National Institute of Health's website describes a need to study the impact climate change will have on human health and diseases in 11 key categories.

"This white paper articulates, in a concrete way, that human beings are vulnerable in many ways to the health effects of climate change," said Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program, whose institute led the interagency effort. "It lays out both what we know and what we need to know about these effects in a way that will allow the health research community to bring its collective knowledge to bear on solving these problems."

The 11 areas needing further study are:

• Asthma, respiratory allergies, and airway diseases
• Mental health and stress-related disorders
• Cancer
• Neurological diseases and disorders
• Cardiovascular disease and stroke
• Waterborne diseases
• Foodborne diseases and nutrition
• Weather-related morbidity and mortality
• Heat-related morbidity and mortality
• Vectorborne and zoonotic diseases (like malaria, which can be transmitted from animals to humans)
• Human developmental effects