Humana Global Climate Change and Public Health: 7 (Respiratory Medicine)

This book features papers presented at the ATS Climate Change and Respiratory Health Workshop, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 2010. It explores both the direct and indirect adverse impacts on respiratory health as a result of climate change. Review “Global Climate Change and Public Health is a book that helps to define … climate change as well as the impact it is having on global public health. … This book should be valuable to all respiratory physicians, allergists, public health, and environmental specialists as well as public policy advocates and governmental agencies. It provides the background with which allergists can help to develop public health advocacy position statements and to bring about much needed policy change throughout the world.” (Ivy Shiue, World Allergy Organization WAO, worldallergy.org, March, 2016)“This book analyzes and evaluates outcomes of climate change on geo-meteorological and on susceptible population bases. … the book may be as useful to planners and public policy experts in modifying or even creating appropriate policies to contend with these changes. … Given its authorship by U.S. and international experts on respiratory health and climate change, the book should find readership in similarly constituted groups. … This book is essential reading at the highest levels of government and infrastructure.” (J. Thomas Pierce, Doody’s Book Reviews, May, 2014) From the Back Cover Pulmonary physicians and scientists currently have minimal capacity to respond to climate change and its impacts on health. The extent to which climate change influences the prevalence and incidence of respiratory morbidity remains largely undefined. However, evidence is increasing that climate change does drive respiratory disease onset and exacerbation as a result of increased ambient and indoor air pollution, desertification, heat stress, wildfires, and the geographic and temporal spread of pollens, molds and infectious agents. Preliminary research has revealed climate change to have potentially direct and indirect adverse impacts on respiratory health. Published studies have linked climate change to increases in respiratory disease, including the following: changing pollen releases impacting asthma and allergic rhinitis, heat waves causing critical care-related diseases, climate driven air pollution increases, exacerbating asthma and COPD, desertification increasing particulate matter (PM) exposures, and climate related changes in food and water security impacting infectious respiratory disease through malnutrition (pneumonia, upper respiratory infections). High level ozone and ozone exposure has been linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, and acute lower respiratory infection. Global Climate Change and Public Health is an important new volume based on the research, findings, and discussions of US and international experts on respiratory health and climate change. This volume addresses issues of major importance to respiratory health and fills a major gap in the current literature. The ATS Climate Change and Respiratory Health Workshop was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 15, 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to address the threat to global respiratory health posed by climate change. The workshop was attended by domestic and international experts as well as representatives of international respiratory societies and key US federal agencies. Dr. Pinkerton and Dr. Rom, the editors of this title, were co-chairs of the Climate Change Workshop and Symposium. About the Author Kent E. Pinkerton, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Professor In-Residence, Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis.  He is also Director of the Center for Health and the Environment at the John Muir Institute of the Environment.  Dr. Pinkerton’s research is on health effects of environmental air p