The newly released National Climate Assessment highlights the need to protect communities against the health impacts of climate change. The report affirms that climate change “is increasing the risks of respiratory stress from poor air quality, heat stress, and the spread of food-borne, insect-borne, and waterborne diseases. The negative effects of heat on human cardiovascular, cerebral, and respiratory systems are well established.”
Specifically the report asserts that ground-level ozone is projected to “increase in the 19 largest urban areas of the Southeast, leading to an increase in deaths. A rise in hospital admissions due to respiratory illnesses, emergency room visits for asthma, and lost school days is expected.”
“Climate change will, absent other changes, amplify some of the existing health threats the nation now faces. Certain people and communities are especially vulnerable, including children, the elderly, the sick, the poor, and some communities of color.”
To read about the public health effects of climate change in the Southeast, click here.
