Why climate action is good for your health

Environmental shift already affecting our patients, say Drs. Daniel Bierstone, Josh Penslar and Curtis Lavoie.

Some aspects of public policy are considered so axiomatic in Canada that they generally transcend party lines. These include public health care and education, and numerous community health promotion programs (hence the massive backlash this year against Premier Doug Ford’s proposed cuts to public health). Sadly and ironically, one of the issues that has not yet joined this list is climate action. Sad, because the impacts of a changing climate on ecosystems and communities is becoming all too apparent; ironic, because climate change poses an urgent risk to our health and the health of our children that can and should be addressed by public policy.

Several mainstream national health organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Public Health Association and the Canadian Nurses Association have already called on all federal political parties to consider climate change “as the greatest health threat of the 21st century.” Meanwhile, the Ontario Public Health Association has launched makeitbetterontario.ca, an online tool kit for parents on mitigating climate change’s daily impacts on children’s health.

Let us therefore illustrate some of the ways in which we, as Canadian pediatric health providers, already see climate change affecting our patients:

Air quality. One of the conditions we treat on a daily basis is asthma. Asthma attacks can be triggered, among other things, by poor air quality and pollen. Poor air quality results from both pollution and extreme heat, such as the heat wave recently experienced in Ontario. Milder winters have also created a longer growing season for pollen-producing plants such as ragweed, making the pollen itself more potent and allergenic. We worry about how these combined factors are likely to worsen already-severe asthma attacks in our most vulnerable patients.

Infectious disease. Climate change is causing more people to be exposed to certain infections such as Lyme disease, caused by tick bites. In milder cases, this causes a localized skin rash, but in severe cases it can affect the joints, muscles, nerves and brain. The frequency of Lyme disease cases in Ontario has jumped in recent years, with three times as many cases in 2017 compared to usual. Changing weather patterns have increased the geographical range of the specific tick species that carries this disease. Other insects, carrying other diseases, may potentially follow as climate change grants them a more comfortable habitat in Canada.

Extreme-weather events and mental health. Climate change has increased the frequency of extreme-weather events across Canada, and we need look no further than the devastating floods and tornadoes that recently occurred in Ottawa and Gatineau. Beyond the immediate risk of death or injury, losing one’s home, possessions, or income is devastating to any child or adult and is known to exacerbate depression, anxiety and poor mental health.

Northern health and food security. Global warming has had disproportionate impacts in the North and on northern Indigenous communities. Many rely on ice roads for safe travel and transportation of essential goods, which are becoming more precarious as winters shorten. Many communities also rely on local wildlife as healthy and traditional food sources, but changing migration patterns and thinning of sea ice are threatening access to “country food.” All these factors have disrupted spiritual connections to the land and exacerbated food insecurity in regions where food prices can be two to three times the national average.

Climate action, specifically carbon pricing, is emerging as one of the core issues in the federal election. As physicians, we have been trained to treat our patients through “evidence-based medicine,” and evidence from multiple jurisdictions has already shown carbon pricing to be an effective way to reduce carbon emissions without impeding economic growth. Using this evidence to safeguard our planet’s health should therefore be as axiomatic as, say, how we follow evidence-based guidelines when we treat children coming to the emergency department with asthma or anaphylaxis.

As physicians, we therefore urge all the federal political parties to recognize unequivocally that evidence-based climate action is health action.

Drs. Daniel Bierstone and Josh Penslar are pediatric resident physicians in Ottawa, and Dr. Curtis Lavoie is a pediatric emergency room physician in Ottawa.