Climate Change's Effect on Medicine
Climate change is something that will impact our world in ways more than one. One way it will impact our world is through medicine. Pediatrics is a field that isn’t as fleshed as other fields, due to it being more unexplored. There are a lot of things about children that are undiscovered, which makes it important to think about how much climate change affects them in particular. Climate change’s effects on medicine in general isn’t really a topic that is thought about, so when it comes to pediatrics, there is probably even less information. In order to find some answers, two doctors were interviewed for their standpoint on climate change. A similar set of questions was asked to each doctor and their responses were very insightful.
I interviewed Dr. Tracy Wolbrink first. According to her, climate change is definitely going to affect medicine a lot, especially with natural disasters such as fires and the air quality. When relating to pediatrics, asthma and diseases related to breathing will definitely rise. China, India, and other heavily populated countries have extreme air quality issues so the fog and fires could affect a lot. Respiratory issues are also something that are going to increase. Asthma is deeply associated with bad air quality, and as the temperature rises, the ozone layer disappears, the trees and plants that filter the air also disappear and more fires that happen, the air quality is going to worsen. This could not only happen in children but in adults as well, such as COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which could become a huge problem.
In 10 years, there is a possibility of food shortages and less clean water, which would stunt children’s growth and therefore affect the next generation in huge ways. These issues could impact children with diarrheal diseases, especially in places that are less fortunate. Kids can also be the most vulnerable since they are just growing and haven’t fully developed. When asked about low income countries, Wolbrink thinks that the issues are going to be magnified. Places in Africa use alternative fuel sources such as cow dung which can affect the carcinogens and when mixed with the existing air pollution, can impact the people more. The lower income countries also have less resources, so when there is a major natural disaster it is probably likely that they can’t combat it as much as they should be able to. Natural disasters are something that are happening more and more these days and therefore that has a bigger impact on people in multiple different ways.
The next question I asked was how can climate change affect children physiologically, and Wolbrink says that people are already starting to get a bit worried and anxious about the current events. Social media makes it extremely easy to spread information and she uses the example of how people find out about the things happening in Indonesia and how people film it which makes it spread extremely quickly. When asked about misinformation, sorting through fake news and real news is something that is important. There are a lot of reputable sources that aren’t being listened to because most people want to create their own narrative, which is how false claims are spread. Facebook and Twitter are starting to block out fake content, which is positive since the correct information is spread.
With rising temperatures, hospitals are probably not adapting extremely well. Most of the equipment used are single use which increases the waste even though there are natural resources that are extremely important to use. Some hospitals in Australia are starting to reuse some things, and the example used was the metal in the tiny ECG’s hospitals use to monitor heart rates. They have started the initiatives to take out that small piece of metal and reuse it, which is a great way of reusing materials and lessening the amount of waste. The States aren’t as developed, although she wishes that it could start to become a thing here.
Next, I talked with Dr. Shannon. She says that climate change will negatively affect medicine in the next 5-10 years, since it will cause an increase in lung diseases, allergies, and asthma. Food insecurity, job insecurity, and housing insecurity are also probably something that will be impacted greatly with climate change. When looked at from a pediatric standpoint, asthma and allergies will be greatly impacted. Housing insecurities would also affect children as well because they can’t fix that themselves and a change of environment would make them think differently and it would affect them a bit psychologically, which would result in a harsher threat towards children overall.
Kids in general could be affected just by their environment alone. They are more sensitive, especially if they have asthma and if they live in a home that has a lot of smoke from smoking that could worsen their condition. Smog and air pollution also worsens this. Kids are also going to receive these problems for much longer, since they are so young. Since the generation that caused it isn’t going to be around for the severe results of the problems, the next generations have to fix it in order to have a habitable world.
Pediatrics and climate change may be a topic that isn’t heard of too much, but it is a vital topic because of the way it impacts children greatly.
Project Year: 2021
Completed by: Shrikha Balaji