How Climate Change Affects Pulmonary Health

Today, we face heat waves and unexpected natural disasters as an every day occurrence. These devastating changes don't just alter our environment, they also alter our health causing long-term effects. Primarily they affect our lungs. According to the WHO, climate change is expected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. In this article I want to share how climate change and pollution indirectly affects our health and what we can do about it.

What effects does climate change cause and how?

Climate change can put an individual at risk of having a pulmonary disease or even worse be the direct cause of one. The following diseases can be caused by climate change:

• Asthma
• Rhinosinusitis
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Respiratory tract infections

Climate change puts individuals at risk of these disease because of many reasons. Firstly it alters plant and fungi behavior, expanding their pollen spore release periods. This leads to worsened allergic reactions and respiratory distress. Climate change also causes more dust storms. Due to rising temperatures, soil dries out more quicker and more often leading to more frequent and severe dust storms. These events can cause worse asthma attacks in people and even hospitalizations. Climate change also worsens air quality. Not only do green house gases warm our planet but they change the composition of the air leading to higher risks of flare-ups of the lungs.

What's worse is that not everyone has the same risk of these diseases. In fact people from lower-income communities or geographically vulnerable regions are much more at risk when it comes to getting a pulmonary disease. When it comes to this issue environmental justice is important. It means ensuring that no one is unfairly exposed to these dangers based on their socioeconomic status, race or location. By fighting for a cleaner planet

What can we do to make a difference?

The biggest thing we can do is try our best to help our planet. We can use more eco-friendly products and devices and in general begin adopting more and more sustainable practices that will help our planet. We can advocate for eco-friendly policies as well as support research when it comes to climate change related health risks. We can also help by raising awareness. Telling more people about how climate change affects our health too can be a big wake-up call for some.

To conclude, climate change isn't just an issue that affects our planet, but it affects us and our health. Without proper precautions we could begin losing more and more lives by pulmonary diseases caused by climate change. While these diseases can be treated it is even more important to prevent individuals from getting them. And we can do that by living a more sustainable life and reducing climate change.

Sources:

1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health
2. https://www.lung.org/clean-air/climate-change
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7427095/
4. https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-and-air-quality
5. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/air-pollution-inequity
6. https://avaada.com/7-secrets-about-causes-of-climate-change/