CLIMATE AND HEALTH
Climate Change is often thought of in terms of its effects on our physical environment; melting icecaps, rising sea levels, heat-waves and storms. But increasing evidence shows that the human impact and in particular the impact on human health will be a major challenge for scientists, International organizations and aids, politicians and the human race in general.
Climate change already exert strong influences on health: increased deaths in heat waves and in natural disasters such as floods, as well as changing patterns of life-threatening vector-borne diseases such as malaria and other existing and emerging infectious diseases are observed.
Overwhelming evidence shows that human activities are affecting the global climate. Climate change has serious implications for public health. Extreme weather events, variable climates that affect food and water supplies, ecosystem changes are all associated with global warming and pose health risks.
Increasing global temperatures will adversely affect both water quality and supply. Any negative impact on water resources would relatively, pose a negative effect on human health. Insufficient water supplies for drinking, bathing, and farming coupled with Earth’s increasing population will present difficult problems to overcome in the future.
The precise extent of the impact is difficult to quantify exactly because there are so many different factors at play. But one thing is certain: climate change is having an effect, and as the planet warms up, that effect is only going to increase.
Many of the drivers of climate change, such as inefficient and polluting forms of energy and transport systems, also contribute to air pollution. Air pollution is presently one of the largest global health risks that subsequently lead to death.
Outdoor air pollution can have direct and sometimes severe consequences for health. Fine particles which penetrate deep into the respiratory tract subsequently increase mortality from respiratory infections, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) such as black carbon, methane and tropospheric ozone are released through inefficient use and burning of biomass and fossil fuels for transport, housing, power production, industry, waste disposal (municipal and agricultural) and forest fires. SLCPs are responsible for a substantial fraction of global warming as well as air-pollution related deaths and diseases.
Since short lived climate pollutants persist in the atmosphere for weeks or months while CO2 emissions persist for years, significant reductions of SLCP emissions could result in immediate health benefits and health cost savings, and generate very rapid climate benefits thus, helping to reduce near-term climate change by a significant amount.
The impact of climate change on mental health is a relatively new field of enquiry that shouldn’t be underestimated or ignored. This concepts ‘mental health’ takes into cognizance the Psychological impacts felt by victims of disaster.
Recently, the world heard about devastating disasters such; Hurricane Harvey that stormed Texas, United States of America, which was closely followed by Hurricane Irma, Florida still in U.S. as well as a magnitude 5.4 earthquake that affected the city of Guatemala in Mexico and a severe flooding in some parts of Nigeria.
People who have survived droughts, floods, tropical storms and similar extreme weather events often lose their homes and their families. As a result, they can experience post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and other mental health problems. These psychological or mental problems are attributable to the aftermath of a disaster in the lives of the victims.
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON GLOBAL HEALTH
• Air pollution and airborne related diseases will likely increase, worsening allergy and asthma conditions. Future ozone-related human health impacts attributable to climate change are projected to lead to hundreds to thousands of premature deaths, hospital admissions, and cases of acute respiratory including increases in asthma and other adverse respiratory effects in children.
• Extreme heat can be expected to cause an increase in the number of premature deaths, from thousands to tens of thousands, to millions each year.
• Increase in the risks of water-related illnesses: Runoff from more frequent and intense extreme precipitation events, and increased water temperatures, will increasingly compromise recreational waters, agricultural water sources, and sources of drinking water. Thus, increasing risks of waterborne illness.
• Climate change, including rising temperatures and changes in weather extremes, is expected to increase the exposure of food to certain pathogens and toxins. Rising temperature and increases in flooding, runoff events, and drought will likely lead to increases in the occurrence and transport of pathogens in agricultural environments, which will increase the risk of food contamination and human exposure to pathogens and toxins. This will increase health risks and require greater vigilance in food safety practices and regulation.
• Extreme weather and other events related to climate change will impact health by exacerbating underlying medical conditions, increasing exposure to food borne and waterborne illness risks, and disrupting infrastructure, including power, water, transportation, and communication systems, that are essential to maintaining access to health care and emergency response services and safeguarding human health.
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE HEALTH OF NIGERIANS
Increased precipitation like rain could result in a corresponding increase in the number of mosquitoes indirectly by expanding larval habitat and food supply. Models suggest, conservatively, that risk of malaria will increase 5-15% by 2100 due to climate change. In Africa alone, according to the MARA Project (Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa), there is a projected increase of 16-28% in person-month exposures to malaria by 2100.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there are an estimated 214 million new cases of malaria and 438,000 deaths, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa as millions of people are still not accessing the services they need to prevent and treat the disease.
Killer diseases such as Meningitis and Cholera increase as temperature and rainfall increases. The mosquitoes that carry the malaria virus, for example, thrive in hot and humid conditions weather.
Earlier this year (January 2017), Nigeria experienced a worst hit from meningitis cases which was reported especially in the extreme northern states of Nigeria. Typical among these states is Zamfara state in Northern Nigeria, where more than 200 deaths associated with Meningitis was announced on the media.
According to premium times, Nigeria recorded a total of over 800 deaths from meningitis in the first quarter of 2017.
Nigeria also faces inland river flood risk. It is projected, that by 2030, an additional 801,700 people may be at risk of river floods annually as a result of climate change and 535,700 due to socio economic change above the estimated 621,100 annually affected population in 2010.
In addition to deaths from drowning, flooding causes extensive indirect health effects, including impacts on food production, water provision, ecosystem disruption, and infectious disease outbreak and vector distribution. Longer term effects of flooding may include post-traumatic stress and population displacement. Lots of lives and properties were destroyed from the recent flooding events that happened in Benue and Niger states of Nigeria. These states are great in agriculture and crop farming. Unfortunately, following the flooding events, large hectares of agricultural lands were lost to flooding. The after effect of disasters of such will be pronounced in agricultural productivity hence, malnutrition will be felt amongst the populace.
Given that the impacts of climate change are projected to increase over the next century, certain existing health threats will intensify and new health threats may emerge. Connecting our understanding of how climate is changing with an understanding of how those changes may affect human health. Decisions about mitigating (reducing) the amount of future climate change, suggest priorities for protecting public health, and help identify research needs could be a great move towards combating climate change thus, saving planet Earth for posterity and future generations.