Filed under: Energy + Climate, Society + Media | Tags: ama, amsa, climate change, family doctors, family physicians, health care, pollution
The answer is not simple. When I first asked physicians to rate the importance of the impact of climate change on public health, they gave me a puzzled look. Yes, climate change affects health—more people are dying because of heat waves; there’s an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases, such as asthma; natural disasters certainly caused a lot of death in the past year. But there’s so much to worry about, so many other problems to discuss with patients, so many other “higher priority issues” to be addressed.
But as we talk, more and more connections form in their minds. One physician grew up in a rural area, where trash was usually burned in her family’s backyard. “This gets you thinking about waste and recycling. No one wants trash in their backyards. It’s not good for health. And, so, we recycled.” She also remembers that in her hometown, a walk-to-school plan was implemented because of concerns with the increase in obesity rates in children. But this also helps reduce the number of cars on the roads, which means less pollution and maybe less respiratory diseases.
Aha! It takes a few moments to make the connections, but they’re certainly there. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is helping the future generation of health care providers make connections between environmental issues and their impact on health. The American Medical Association is also starting to consider the environmental effects on health. Whether fighting climate change and pollution will ever be considered a preventive health care measure is still to be seen. But as communicators, we can help physicians and other health care professionals connect the dots.
Global warming may have been the cause of an increase in natural disasters in 2007
–Angelike Gaunt
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J500 Media and the Environment 
Climate change and health: Connecting the dots…
Yes, climate change affects health—more people are dying because of heat waves; there’s an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases, such as asthma; natural disasters certainly caused a lot of death in the past year. ……
Trackback by Conspirama October 23, 2008 @ 8:40 pmI completely agree with you. I don’t think people in general have completely made the connection between climate change and health and if doctors don’t see it how can the general population. With the points you brought up it seems like doctors would be one group as whole at the forefront of fighting climate change. Doctors would be one group that could truly make a difference in the climate change discussion by helping people to understand how climate change affects their health.
Vanessa Ruperto
Comment by vanessar05 October 24, 2008 @ 2:05 pmVanessa,
I was somewhat surprised to hear that environmental issues are not so much on health care professionals’ minds. Of course, they understand that environmental problems affect health. But with the current situation of the health care system, climate change, pollution, etc., are not high priority. The good thing is that they’re open to hearing messages about the environment. One physician told me that what they need is for someone to remind them and to tell them how they can help. Family physicians, specifically, want to help. They’re community leaders, they treat the person as whole. We just need to tell them what to do, how to advocate for the environment.
I agree that doctors could make a real difference. Patients listen to what their doctors have to say. How can we help them help the environment? This will be my group’s challenge in the next few weeks. Let’s hope we can succeed.
Comment by angelikeg October 25, 2008 @ 8:12 pmAngelike G.
Superb post and you are a great writer.
Comment by ÿþ June 14, 2011 @ 2:04 pm