228-5 Climate Change and Human Health: The Public Health Response

See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Global Warming Science: Implications for Geoscientists, Educators, and Policy Makers I

Tuesday, 7 October 2008: 9:20 AM
George R. Brown Convention Center, General Assembly Theater Hall B

George Luber, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Abstract:
Global climate change poses well documented potential threats to public health, including heat, severe weather events, worsening air pollution, vector-borne diseases, water- and food-borne diseases, disruptions of food supply, and others. These are complex challenges, made more complex by the uncertainty that characterizes them and by the long time frame over which they will manifest. The public health response to climate change may be framed around “mitigation” and “adaptation,” in terms of public health preparedness, as a process of risk management, and/or in the context of the triad of economic/environmental/health decision-making. Specific components of the public health response align with the essential services of public health; examples include data collection and tracking, protective efforts such as urban heat wave plans, public health research, program evaluation, and social marketing. Some activities will be carried out at the Federal level, others at the state level, and still others locally; appropriate communication and scaling is needed. In all these activities, attention to health disparities is essential. This presentation will review the spectrum of public health activities appropriate to addressing climate change, drawing on existing efforts and lessons from other nations.

See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Global Warming Science: Implications for Geoscientists, Educators, and Policy Makers I