2023-11-02 22:55:28
The world’s medical organizations are now coming together in ranks behind a call that 233 editors-in-chief of medical journals published a few weeks ago: The global climate crisis should be recognized by the United Nations as a global health emergency and given political prominence accordingly.
“The catastrophic damage caused by global warming,” it says, must lead to a “change of course” in the fight against climate change. At the weekend at the world’s largest conference for general medicine – “WONCA2023” – the specialist associations for more than three million doctors followed the criticism.
The close connection between the burning of fossil fuels for energy production and air pollution control was emphasized: There was talk of more than seven million premature deaths caused by pollutants from gas, oil and coal consumption.
“The research field has exploded”
In fact, the consequences of global warming are further increasing breathing difficulties in people with lung diseases such as asthma or COPD. Researchers from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) warned about this in a recently published meta-study. The organization represents more than 30,000 lung specialists from 160 countries.
Babies and small children whose lungs are still developing are particularly hard hit. The conclusion of the study published in the “European Respiratory Journal” is an urgent appeal: In addition to stricter air quality standards, the “building of climate-neutral societies” must also be ensured as quickly as possible.
The number of more than eighty studies cited impressively shows the variety of empirical data on the interaction between climate change and lung diseases that has been collected in the past two decades.
“The research field has exploded,” says Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, environmental epidemiologist at the University of Bern and lead author of the publication. Since 2009, when the ERS published a similar appeal for the first time and for the only time to date, the data situation has continued to improve and the topic has gained significant attention.
According to the study, the entirety of the publications examined shows an “overwhelming consensus about the harmful health effects that global warming is already having for a large number of people today.” With every additional degree of warming, the consequences would become more severe.
The devil is in the details: global warming can pose a danger to people with lung disease in several ways. The effects of higher average temperatures and more frequent heat waves are obvious. A study published in the journal “Thorax” in 2022, based on data from the past eleven years, showed that COPD hospitalizations in England had become 1.5 percent more common for each degree of temperature increase.
Very high and low temperatures make it difficult for many people to breathe
Meanwhile, multi-year test series from 25 Chinese cities suggest that both particularly low and particularly high temperatures reduce the one-second capacity and vital capacity, i.e. making it dangerously difficult for people with asthma to breathe out. People with allergic rhinitis are also affected: When sick test subjects were exposed to warm, humid air for ten minutes, the frequency of coughing increased by a factor of 23 compared to staying in air-conditioned rooms.
Modeling and studies from several regions of the world complement the findings that global warming is extending the pollen season, stimulating ozone production and making major fires, floods and storms more likely – which is catastrophic for those with lung disease. The ERS also demonstrates that the mechanisms behind it are well understood through a compilation of published studies from recent years. Uncertainties only exist with regard to the exact extent of individual consequences that can be expected in the future under certain climate scenarios.
Petra Kirchhoff Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 9 Pia Heinemann Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 12 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 20
The alarm call has already arrived in clinical practice, says Vicedo-Cabrera. “The newest generations of medical students are becoming increasingly interested in how climate change affects their work and health risks. And they question how they can become part of the solution.” In fact, professionals have a key role to play in providing the best possible protection for those affected, argues the ERS publication. “As pulmonologists, we are responsible for understanding the risks for those who are already sick and communicating them in the best possible way,” says Zorana Jovanovic Andersen from the University of Copenhagen, who was also involved in the publication.
The fact that the appeal has been published now is no coincidence, explains first author Vicedo-Cabrera. “The timing, shortly before the current World Climate Conference, seemed appropriate to us. And the EU negotiations on new air quality standards also played a role.” In mid-September, shortly after the ERS appeal was published, new limit values for nitrogen oxide and fine dust pollution were actually set.
Both can pose an additional danger to those with lung disease if the concentration is too high. As requested by the ERS, the values are now based on the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines, updated in 2021.
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