Climate Effects on Health
The impact of climate change on our health is undeniable, and it's something that we must address as a society. Mental health issues, premature deaths, and other health effects disproportionately affect people of color. At AZHPCA, we are committed to educating and advocating for policies that promote climate health for all.
How is Health impacted by climate change?
Our environment is changing because of certain human activities beyond the normal cycles and variation of our planet's history. This changing environment impacts human health and diseases on a global scale. Humans are affected by exposures in their environment that can cause disease whether this be asthma because of smokers in the house or skin cancer from excessive sun exposure. Our changing climate is now exposing humans to extremes of temperature, air particles from wildfires and pollen, and food and economic insecurity from drought and destructive storms. These exposures lead to a worsening or current diseases such as respiratory illness, mental health disorders and cardiovascular disease, but new disease leading to premature deaths and increased cancers. Humans who have less resilience because of age, underlying diseases, or socioeconomic status are more likely to suffer from these exposures, yet a changing climate cannot be avoided by humans with many resources.
What aspects of human health are affected by climate change?
​Human health impacts from climate change can be broken down by an exposure based approach. This permits identification of the climate related exposure, how this influences the environment and health, and ways to decrease the cause of the climate exposure all while improving health resiliency for humans. Some of these climate related exposures include air quality, mental health, and extreme temperatures and for more information on each of these click on the buttons below. Medical disorders linked to climate change include, respiratory illness, cancer, infant mortality and pediatric hospitalizations to name a few.
What health impacts do we see most in Arizona?
Living in Arizona we understand many of us live in the desert. Our living environment involves extreme heat, cold winter nights, wildfires, long pollen seasons, and monsoon storms being experienced year round. Health affects of this environment include heat stroke, asthma exacerbations, allergies, dehydration, kidney injury, vector borne infections and climate migration.
