Global warming biggest health threat

Updated on: 14 May,2009 04:38 PM IST |
PTI |

Global warming biggest health threat

Researchers have claimed climate change will worsen virtually every known health problem -- from heart disease and heatstroke to salmonella and insect-borne infectious diseases, the 'New Scientist' reported.

In fact, they have listed shortages of water and food, along with war and ecological collapse, as the most pressing health threats posed by climate change.

According to Anthony Costello, Director of University College London's Institute for Global Health, the research is a wake-up call and alerts to the fact that the world is facing a global crisis.

"Eighteen months ago I felt there're other priorities. I thought infant mortality was a much more immediate risk to the developing countries I visited, and thought climate change was something in the distance. "I hadn't fully understood how a change of 2 C, which seems like a pleasant summer afternoon, has such implications for ecosystems, for water, for storm damage," he said.

Agreed Mark Maslin, a climatologist at UCL, "This (research) report says the medical profession has to wake up. Pulling our hair out, saying we're all going to die horribly does not save lives."

Added Richard Horton, Editor of 'The Lancet', which commissioned the research to specialists at UCL: "The health sector has in the past not only underestimated but completely neglected and ignored the issues. "This has not been an issue on the agenda of any professional body in health over the last 10 years in any significant way."

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