The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials recently held a forum to discuss the impact climate change is having on public health. The participants included Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine.
Climate change is impacting the environment and society. Association of State and Territorial Health Officials chief medical officer Dr. Marcus Plescia noted the health effects of climate change are many and varied.
“They range from things like injuries due to conditions like heat stroke, asthma or exacerbation of asthma, cardiovascular disease and after long term exposures even cancer.”
State health officials outlined how climate change is affecting not only the environment but also the health of residents. Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said they have been tracking a number of health impacts.
“The health impacts in Vermont include the very obvious heat related illness and the secondary impacts from storms and flooding and these extreme weather events. Vector-borne diseases both by mosquitoes and ticks. The blooms of cyanobacteria, the blue green algae blooms that have plagued us to a greater degree than ever this past summer. Water and food-borne diseases and then the air quality impacts and the impact on respiratory disease. And that doesn’t even begin to get into all the impacts on chronic disease and mental health.”
Levine reported that public health and emergency responders have been in a continuous climate disaster response cycle for the past year and added it is challenging to respond to multiple different types of disasters using traditional public health tools.
“Our ability to move from a constant response mood to preparedness mode is where we’d love to be. Yet it seems that there’s a new disaster around the corner related to climate each time. Public health has had little time or funding support for education, preparedness, evaluation, addressing the fundamental issues of environmental justice and health equity. And certainly there is a substantial mental and emotional toll with climate change.”
Dr. Levine said state and federal leaders must act to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“If you ask the World Health Organization what is the single biggest health threat facing humanity? It is climate change. If you ask all of the professional organizations across health care and medicine what the greatest public health challenge of the 21st century is they say climate change. In 2021 the editors of 200 medical journals basically all said that a global temperature increase of just one and a half degrees is the greatest threat to global public health. Not only does climate change need to be much better funded in general but the public health threats to climate change are real and they’re upon us now.”
