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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 10, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1997

REPORTS...
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS: HEALTH

Item #d97jan85

Climate Change and Human Health, World Health Org., World Meteorol. Org., U.N Environ. Prog., approx. 300 pp., July 1996, $27/Sw Fr 30/developing countries Sw Fr 21 (WHO; Order No. 1930091).

See News, Global Climate Change Digest, Aug. 1996. A summary booklet has also been published which gives the joint positions of the above three organizations regarding the impact of climate change on such topics as vector-borne diseases, heat-related deaths, and monetary impacts of potential changes in risks of mortality.

Item #d97jan86

Conference on Human Health and Global Climate Change — Summary of the Proceedings, P.B. Phelps, with V. Setlow & A. Pope, Eds., 64 pp., June 1996 (Natl. Acad. Sci./Inst. of Medicine, limited copies; also Natl. Acad. Press).

Participants at the Sep. 1995 conference agreed generally that changes in the global climate could pose significant risks to human health, and lack of complete data should not be used as an excuse for inaction. Instead, the precautionary principle should apply. Actions that can be taken now include creation of a global surveillance and response network; increased coordination among nations and scientific disciplines; multidisciplinary research on the links between global climate change and human health; improved environmental health training for health professionals; and an outreach program to inform and educate the public.

Item #d97jan87

Concern for Europe's Tomorrow, 535 pp., May 1996, $97/DM 150 (WHO, European Regional Office).

The World Health Organization has called for full implementation of the amended Montreal Protocol, as well as additional, similar restrictions for CFC alternatives as the only way to prevent the emergence of serious health problems in Europe. The prospect of increased frequency of extreme climatic events has more important health implications than moderate changes in average temperature and weather conditions to which populations become adapted. Communicable diseases may also increase as the result of a warmer climate.

Item #d97jan88

Infecting Ourselves: How Environmental and Social Disruptions Trigger Disease (Worldwatch Paper 129), A.E. Platt, 79 pp., $5 (Worldwatch).

Population increases, lack of clean water, poorly planned development, inadequate vaccinations, misuse of antibiotics, and increased human mobility are among the factors that lead to resurgence in infectious disease worldwide. Ecological disturbances such as fire, flood, deforestation, earthquake, and land use changes tip the balance between people and microbes in favor of the microbes. Global climate change is certain to cause disruptions that can also affect disease transmission. Among the four points recommended to control the spread of disease is to slow population growth and stabilize the world's climate through implementation of the 1994 World Population Plan of Action and the Climate Convention.