Impact of climate change on health

Bangladesh is a South Asian country with a total population of about 160 million, and is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Most part of the country is low-lying and floodplains occupy 80% of the country (Islam, 2008). About 80% of the people live in rural areas although there is rapid urbanization. Agriculture, manufacturing, transport, trade etc. make up the major economic sectors of the country. Bangladesh has humid, warm, tropical climate, influenced primarily by monsoons. The monsoon season starts around the first week of June and lasts until the first week of October. The easterly trade winds provide warm and relatively drier circulation. There are four distinctive seasons: winter (December to February), pre-monsoon (March to May), monsoon (June to early October), and post-monsoon (late October to November). It has moderately warm temperatures and high humidity with heavy torrential rains throughout the monsoon season. Annual rainfall ranges from 1200 mm in the west to more than 5000 mm in the east and north-east. 23% of the country is cov- ered by coastal zone with a 710-kilometer long coastline (Islam, 2008). Bangladesh is one of the most disaster- prone countries in the world Due to its geographic location. As Agarwala et al. (2003: p. 6) described climate change poses significant risks for Bangladesh, yet the core elements of its vulnerability are primarily contextual. A major storm event may result in approximately 290 DALY per 1000 population, including both deaths and injuries, compared to a current all-cause rate of about 280 per 1000 in the region (Nelson, 2003: p. 323). This review has been undertaken to briefly describe the major routes through which climate change impacts Health. The objective of this paper is to understand the extent of climate change in Bangladesh and its impact on human health.

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1104934 2 Open Access Library Journal brought about serious problems in the resources, environment and climate change. The global climate is experiencing a notable change characterized by warming, which has made a significant impact on the global ecosystem, so- cio-economy and human health and has constantly altered the exposure patterns of human risk to the outside world. Therefore, understanding the characteristics and trends of climate change is of great significance for exploring the impacts of climate change on human health, formulating relevant policies and adaptation strategies. The effects of climate change are tangible and demand actions [3] [4]. These actions can be mitigation, to prevent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or reduce their atmospheric concentration, or adaptation, to adjust to actual or ex- pected climate and its effects [5]. With the global warming, environmental changes and frequent occurrence of extreme climate, frequency of occurrence and types of diseases and regions have changed obviously. Global climate change is the most dramatic and far-reaching change in the world, which has the most profound impact on human sustainable development. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its fifth assessment report, has confirmed that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the main causes of current climate change. Climate change is one of the biggest and menacing issues in our time and it has exerted a profound influence on the 21st century.

Our ability to quantify the health impacts of future climate has significant implications in guiding policies towards environmental sustainability and in protecting public health. Uncer- tainty quantification for climate projections is an important component in the risk assessment process. To the authors’s knowledge, this is the first health impact analysis to utilize a calibration approach that directly characterizes the uncertainty in the quantiles of future weather. This is particularly useful for examining heat-related impacts where extreme events such as heat waves have been associated with considerable health risks. The main contribution of this paper is to present a statistical framework aimed to not only provide more accurate projections, but to also al- low uncertainty propagation in the health impact calculations. We believe the approach described here represents a crucial step towards enhancing the applicability and relevance of the results from climate change and health studies.

The accelerated increase in the greenhouse gases (GHG) concentration in the atmosphere is certainly a major cause for climate change. As per the IPCC (2007) report, the maximum growth in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) has occurred between 1970 and 2004, i.e. 145% increase from energy supply sector, 120% from transport, 65% from industry, 40% from change in land use patterns and during this period global population increases by 69%. As per the WMO (2013), the world experienced unprecedented high-impact climate extremes during the 2001–2010 decade that was the warmest since the start of modern measurements in 1850. Moreover, survey of 139 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and socio-economic data and analysis from several UN agencies and partners conducted by WMO concluded that floods were the most frequently experienced extreme events over the course of the decade. Extreme weather could be a manifestation of global climate change. In its fourth assessment report the United Nation’s inter-governmental panel on climate change has concluded that overall climate change is projected to increase the threat to human health, particularly to lower income populations, predominantly with tropical/sub-tropical countries. Nearly two third of the population in India are depending directly on the climate sensitive sectors such as fisheries, agriculture and forests. The projected climate change under various scenarios is likely to have many implications on water supply, food production, bio- diversity and livelihoods. During the last few years extreme weather events such as severe storms, drought and flood have claimed thousands of lives and have also adversely affected the lives of millions in terms of economic losses and also damage to property. Human beings are exposed to climate change through changing weather patterns either directly or indirectly through changes in air, water, food quality and quantity, agriculture, livelihood and infrastructure. Climatic conditions affect diseases transmitted through water and via vectors such as mosquitoes in addition to changing weather patterns. Climate-sensitive diseases are among the largest global killers that can cause excess mortality and morbidity directly or indirectly. Season-wise, maximum rise in mean temperature was observed during the post-monsoon season, followed by winter season, pre-monsoon season and monsoon season.

Shemsanga et al. (2010) asserted that the best way to explain the effect of climate change is to focus on the context of crops production and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera and malaria. Crop yields have been used in many studies to justify the impact of climatic change (Burke et al. 2009; Hatibu et al. 2003; Shemsanga et al. 2010). This is because climate change influences crop yields by decreasing soil moisture content, increase drought and floods, and support diseases affecting crops. A broad literature search was conducted using Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com), Open Doar-directory of pen access repository (http://www.opendoar.org), Agora (http://www.fao.org/agora/en/), Springer Online Journals (http://link.springer.com/), Doaj-directory of open access journals (https://doaj.org) and Elsevier ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/). The attention was given on the peer-reviewed articles and government reports between 2000 and 2017. Other reports from different websites were also reviewed, these include Tanzania Climate Change Information Repository (TaCCIRe) (http://www.taccire.suanet.ac.tz), Tanzania Metrological Agency (TMA) (http://www.meteo.go.tz/), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Health Organization (WHO), Group on Climate Change and Health (IWGCCH) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The wide range in sea level rise estimates are the result of uncertainties in the global emission of greenhouse gases, the dynamic response of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, and changes in ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. Elevated sea levels will place many New Hampshire communities at risk of flooding from nor’easters and hurricanes. It is expected there will be significant impacts to the various components that comprise the built, natural, and social environments within municipalities. Coastal storms combined with sea level rise increasesthe risk of erosion, storm-surge damage, and flooding for coastal communities. This means that roadways, bridges, flood and storm water control systems, forests, watersheds, public health systems, buildings, power outages and other aspects of our communities will be affected.

Abstract: Major scientific studies have shown that global warming (i.e. increasing average temperature of the Earth) is now a reality. The aims of this paper are to broadly review the underlining causes of global warming, the general effects of global warming on social and environmental systems and the specific effects of resulting from global warming phenomena severe fluctuations in weather patterns, particularly heat waves on livestock health, welfare and productivity. Finally this article aims to summarise some common sense climate control methods and more importantly to highlight the required future research and development (R&D) work that is necessary to achieve a new level of building environment control capability, and thus ensure that the intensive livestock industries will be able to cope with the changed external climate. With the increasing temperatures on a global scale, the most direct effect of the high temperature on the animals is heat stress, which has been proven to have a variety of negative effects on animal health, welfare and productivity. Different potential measures could be taken in future to alleviate the increased heat stress. Some of these measures are mere adaptations or improvements of current engineering solutions. However, facing the complex challenges of global warming and particularly resulting from it the rapid increase of the number of consecutive days with significantly higher than average temperatures will probably require novel solutions, including new designs based on solid engineering judgment, development of new engineering standards and codes to guide designs, the exploration of new and superior building materials, the need for better energy management, and the development of substantially more “intelligent”control systems that will balance changing exterior disturbances, interior building loads and demands to the biological needs of the occupants of the structures.

Pricing is bases on accurate statistics (mortality and morbidity rates linked to disasters, frequency of events…), which are difficult to establish for largely unpredictable weather disasters. But large natural disasters, such as the South Asia tsunami, can help to improve understanding of how a tsunami propagates and to better assess the risk. Actuaries and organizations such as the World Health Organization, which is working on the impact of climate change on health in the long term, must also develop new tools to evaluate the effects of the climate change on human morbidity and mortality. Taking up the challenge of prevention

The impact of climate change on health, depend on several factors. These factors include the effectiveness of a community’s public health and safety systems to prepare for the risk and the behavior, age, gender and economic status of individuals, affected impacts will likely to vary by regions. Heat waves increase due to global warming and combine with the buildup of pollution, including ozone, a primary component of smog. Air temperature and ozone may be bad for the heart because they influence the way the automatic nervous system functions. The automatic nervous system is a part of the central nervous system that helps the body adapt to its environment. It regulates body functions including the heart’s electrical activity and airflow into the lungs. Higher temperatures may also make the body more sensitive to toxins, such as ozone.

The main instrument used for the study was a pretested struc- tured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Questionnaire administration was conducted by trained research assistants who could also speak the local language. A vernacular version of the questionnaire was prepared for the unedu- cated respondents; this was back-translated into English to reduce interobserver variation in interpretation during the interview. The questionnaire sought information about the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents, and their knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes about the causes and effects of CC and its impact on rural child health.

Heatwaves may impair functionality of hospitals including medical equipment and storage of medicines [8, 18, 19], and affect thermal comfort of hospital buildings for patients and staff [20–22]. Structural design to meet other requirements in a hospital may compromise thermal regulation, e.g. due to poor heating system control strategies, or safety protocols restricting window opening [23–25, 21, 26, 27]. Modern or temporary buildings may perform worse in terms of thermal regulation than older buildings [22, 28, 21, 29]. There is relatively little evidence on impacts of extreme heat in other facilities, such as care homes, though some case studies suggest problems asso- ciated with poorly adapted equipment, structural design and care practices [2, 30], and lack of awareness among designers and managers regarding the need for heat management as well as avoiding risks of cold [31, 32]. More research is needed on the extent of such problems, especially since mortality risks during heatwaves are particularly high for older people in care homes [33–36]. Impact of extreme heat on the wider networks of built in- frastructure and utilities supporting health care systems are generally insignificant given the levels of extreme tem- peratures observed to date in the UK [37–39].

annually in lost potential profitability. For example, summer heat stress results in annual losses to the dairy industry that total $5-6 billion, due to reduced milk production and productive potential” [28] . The summer 2003 heat wave in Europe generated losses of approximately € 42 million in the poultry production industry alone [29] . In France 4 million broilers died representing a 15% loss in productivity. In Spain there was a mortality of 15% to 20% while productivity decreased 25% to 30%. In the USA St-Pierre et al. [30] estimated economical losses of livestock varied from $120 to $900 million for broiler, pig, beef cattle and dairy cows respectively. These losses occurred by performance reduction including reduced growth rates, reduced feed intake, poor milk and egg production, increases in mortality and reproductive losses. In 1977 more than 700 dairy cows died during a heat wave in California [31] . In both 1992 and 1999 in Nebraska, and in 1995 in Iowa and Nebraska, heat waves led to $20 million losses in livestock production [7] . While strict economics are one metric for assessing the impact of global climate change, the resultant and associated stresses on people, communities and the poultry and livestock welfare cannot be neglected.

From a health promotion perspective, it can be observed that the impact of climate change on agricultural production largely affects the wider social determinants of health adversely. A reduced agricultural yield signifies a reduction in household income, and jeopardises the ability to acquire decent housing for family, and attain better education for children. Marmot and Wilkinson have carefully elaborated the negative impact of unemployment, poor housing and low education on health and well-being (Marmot and Wilkinson, 2006). The effects of extremely high and low temperatures are dreadful, and include the emergence and spread of diseases such as malaria, skin cancers, and respiratory infections, influenza, and pneumonia. Studies have identified an association between high temperatures and stroke, especially in elderly people (Byrant, 1997). Extreme temperatures are associated with stress which can culminate in psychosomatic and mental illness, leading to increased violence, suicide, crime and death (Byrant, 1997).

The long-term impact of floods on morbidity and mortality is complex and not well understood (Alderman et al., 2012). Health impacts such as mortality may be attributed to floods directly, or with moderate directness such as occurs with increases in diarrheal deaths in low-income countries (Ramin and McMichael, 2009; Schwartz et al., 2006) and these are mostly related to the early period of the event itself and the periods shortly after the event (days to a few weeks), or these impacts might work indirectly on health and wellbeing in the longer term (months to years), by exacerbating poverty, impairing food and economic systems, and causing malnutrition. It is being increasingly recognized that in developed systems where there are significant populations that require ongoing access to life support services, end stage renal disease, cancer management etc floods may disrupt access to these services. In affected populations in the first year following a flood, the mortality rate may continue to increase by up to 50% (Fundter et al., 2008), as confirmed with the 47% increase in percentage of deaths in the first year after Hurricane Katrina (1317 deaths per month versus 924 per month comparative to a four year baseline) (Stephens et al., 2007). A study of the impact of floods on health in China has shown that two years after the flood the mortality and years of potential life lost for five leading causes of death were significantly higher in groups exposed to floods (Li et al., 2007).

In the 21st century, climate change is expected to increase the risk of more recurrent and severe floods through higher river flows resulting from unpredictable rainfall in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna system during the monsoon and being increase melting of the Himalayan glaciers. About 53% of the coastal areas are affected by salinity. As a result, increasing salinity in coastal drinking water with severe health consequences to surrounding populations [6]. Millions of people in northern Bangladesh are threatened by riverbank erosion and severe droughts [24]. Groundwater, crop soils and many rivers are likely to become increasingly saline from higher tidal waves and storm surges as a result of climate change effects [25]. Reduced freshwater flows into the Padma River caused by the Farakka Barrage, climate change induced

It is well understood that climate change augments exist- ing inequalities, rendering those most marginalized at greater peril to the health consequences of a changing climate [4, 32, 33]. In fact, the first key message from the Lancet’s Countdown on Climate Change and Health report emphasizes the disproportionate impact climate change has on the world’s most marginalized people and the consequential impacts this has on these popu- lations if social and environment justice concerns are not addressed [4]. Watts et  al. state: “By undermining the social and environmental determinants that under- pin good health, climate change exacerbates social, eco- nomic, and demographic inequalities, with the impacts eventually felt by all populations” [4]. Those who are at greatest risk to the effects of climate change are those who are most marginalized based on socially and envi- ronmentally mediated factors, such as socioeconomic status, culture, gender, race, employment, and education [15, 34]. Marginalized groups who tend to be the most affected by the mental and physical health implications of climate change are: Indigenous peoples, children, seniors, women, people with low-socioeconomic status, outdoor labourers, racialized people, immigrants, and people with pre-existing health conditions [2, 3, 7, 13, 22, 23, 33, 35, 36]. Importantly, these marginalized groups are not homogenous. People may experience intersections of marginalization based on a variety of the above social indicators.

migration (Devereux, 1999, Barrios et al., 2006), which is a concern to policy makers in less developed countries (LDCs). This is because rapid urbanisation already presents challenges for housing, transport, and social infrastructure such as health and education facilities (Cohen, 2006, Tacoli, 2009, Alirol et al., 2011). Despite this, there is little empirical evidence to support the idea that climate change will induce urban migration (Lilleør and Van den Broeck, 2011). Although the impact of climate change on migration patterns is hotly debated, the debate remains largely theoretical. Consequently, much is unknown about the impact of climate change on urbanisation. Understanding the impact of rural-urban migration on urbanisation is complicated by the idea that most migrants in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) move back and forth between a sending and receiving area as they attempt to access distant resources that are not linked to the local economy (Potts, 2010) , thus protecting a family from agricultural shocks and stresses (Massey et al., 1993). Given that circular migrants return to their rural households, it is assumed that urbanisation does not occur as migrants do not stay in the city permanently (Potts, 2010). However, in predominantly rural countries where climate change threatens rural opportunities, urban areas may be seen to offer a better life (Barrios et al., 2006, Warner, 2010, Parnell and Walawege, 2011). This may lead to an overall reallocation of labour from rural to urban areas in the form of more permanent migration patterns (Barrios et al., 2006, Collier et al., 2008).

Egypt is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to the expected detrimental impacts on coastal zones, agriculture, water security as well as indirect social and health impacts. Egypt is responsible for 0.57% of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although Egypt is a non-annex I country not requiring any specific emission reduction or limitation targets under the Kyoto protocol, its National plans have included mitigation measures to reduce its green- house gases. The main sectors contributing to climate change in Egypt are energy, industry, agriculture and waste.

The influences of weather and climate on human health are significant and varied. They range from the clear threats of temperature extremes and severe storms to connections that may seem less obvious. For example, weather and climate affect the survival, distribution, and behavior of mosquitoes, ticks, and rodents that carry diseases like West Nile virus or Lyme disease 5 . Climate and weather can also affect water and food quality in particular areas, with implications for human health. In addition, the effects of global climate change on mental health and well-being are integral parts of the overall climate- related human health impact 6 .

The influences of weather and climate on human health are significant and varied. They range from the clear threats of temperature extremes and severe storms to connections that may seem less obvious. For example, weather and climate affect the survival, distribution, and behavior of mosquitoes, ticks, and rodents that carry diseases like West Nile virus or Lyme disease 5 . Climate and weather can also affect water and food quality in particular areas, with implications for human health. In addition, the effects of global climate change on mental health and well-being are integral parts of the overall climate- related human health impact 6 .