Health warning

The effects of climate change could overwhelm European health services, says Genon K. Jensen, and the Gastein forum should sit up and take notice

If doctors and health service managers at the European health forum in Gastein have an uncomfortable feeling that something is missing from the agenda, they are right.

The impact of climate change on health is already being felt in Europe.

Hospital admissions among the elderly have risen significantly during heat waves over the past few years, and more hospitals have had to deal with the consequences of floods. Increased light exposure is pushing up skin cancer rates and some of the so-called tropical diseases are making a comeback.

Just last year, the chikungunya virus was transmitted by mosquitoes during a hot spell in northern Italy.

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, made climate change the theme of world health day and of WHO’s 60th anniversary in April this year. She stated, “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Climate change will affect, in profoundly adverse ways, some of the most fundamental determinants of health – food, air, water.”

Both she and the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) recognise the importance of the public health community in both adapting to climate change and preventing climate change taking place. This week, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and partners are launching a report that provides representatives of the health sector with the public health and economic case for stronger, more urgent action.

‘The co-benefits of stronger climate change policy’ was prepared by Mike Holland, an independent consultant who has worked with the European commission and WHO on similar cost-benefit analyses. He estimates that the health benefits in monetary terms of setting a higher emissions reduction target are between €31bn and €118bn over the 10-year period 2020-2030.

The figure is based on comparing estimates of cost savings from emission reductions of 30 per cent by 2020 (from 1990 levels) instead of 20 per cent reductions, the current target. It shows that the higher target would result in an additional 11,000 fewer people dying each year from respiratory conditions by 2020, and the number of working days lost due to respiratory conditions would be reduced by an additional 11m annually.

Last year, Gastein did begin to address climate change. A two-day parallel session by the commission’s health directorate and WHO looked at environment and health, including climate change. Since then, climate change has moved to centre stage in environmental health work, yet the health community is not taking the opportunity of Gastein to discuss this burning issue.

So why is there no reaction from the public health community and healthcare sector to climate change being left off the agenda in Gastein? Do they see it simply as a bandwagon that has nothing to do with them? HEAL believes that nothing is further from the truth.

Without more forceful efforts from health professionals, the impact of climate change will erode public health achievements in Europe and may lead to health services becoming overwhelmed.

Health professionals are in a hugely powerful position to make the case for strong measures on climate change to protect health. Public health and climate change are inextricably linked – the European health community needs to take the WHO’s lead and start coordinating its action right now.