Lung doctors sound alert on global warming

Respiratory doctors call for EU action on climate change

Brussels 1 August 2009 – The risk of premature death due to temperature increases associated with global warming is six times higher for Europeans who are already suffering from respiratory problems, according to a paper published today.

Two leading health organisations, the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), want to ensure that the respiratory health effects and costs of climate change are considered in all discussions and recommended actions at the EU level.

The position paper published today (1) by the ERS describes the heavy burden of temperature increases and poor air quality on people whose health is already compromised due to respiratory problems, such as asthma, respiratory tract infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (2). For instance, a one degree Celsius increase in temperature produces a 1-3% increase in deaths in the general population, but this same temperature increase results in a 6% increase in deaths among people with respiratory conditions.

Professor Jon Ayres, director of the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Birmingham, UK and lead author of the paper in the European Respiratory Journal says: "In the summer when temperatures rise significantly, the effect on patients with lung disease is marked. If we can provide better warning systems and information for respiratory patients, and encourage stronger EU action to mitigate the effects of climate change, fewer people will die unnecessarily."

The ERS encourages its doctors to speak out and to educate healthcare professionals on the impact of hotter temperatures on their patients. The ERS, the leading medical society for lung health, which brings together some 9000 respiratory clinicians and scientists in over 100 countries worldwide, is working together with HEAL to emphasise the impact on health of climate change to policy makers in current discussions on climate change (3).

HEAL has welcomed the publication of the position paper by the ERS, which represents a first from a specialist medical society. Representing more than 60 health and environment organisations, HEAL would like to see other specialist medical bodies producing similar position papers so that the scale of the impact for health of climate change becomes more widely known.

In June 2009, HEAL called upon the European Union to send a health delegation to the deal-making climate change talks in Copenhagen in December 2009 (4). The aim is to draw attention to the often overlooked benefits of strong, "health-proofed" climate change policy for health. "Recent research shows that the cleaner air associated with climate change policies can reduce hospital admissions and premature deaths," says Génon Jensen, Executive Director of the Health and Environment Alliance. "This would represent future savings to society and health systems of up to 25 billion Euros per year in monetary terms." (5)

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For more information, please contact:

Prof Jon G Ayres, Institute of Occupational & Environmental Health, University of Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-mail: [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Website: www.ersnet.org. Mobile phone: [phone]

Génon K. Jensen, Executive Director, Health & Environment Alliance, 28 Boulevard Charlemagne, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: [phone] (direct) Fax : [phone] E-mail: [e-mail] Website: www.env-health.org Mobile phone: + 32 495 808732.

Keywords

• Climate change

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom