It is particularly critical to evaluate the potential impact of global climate change on human health now when the global community has enough time to work out the relevant prevention strategies. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the most critical points of concern and provide an overview of their spread according to geographic regions.
Health Concerns Related To Global Climate Change
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests distinguishing four main factors that determine the health concerns associated with global climate change: temperature, air quality, extreme events, and water quality. It likewise points out the most critical areas of concerns: safety and nutrition, mental health, and Vector-Borne Disease. According to the agency’s analysis, temperature-related changes imply the increase in heat strokes and heat-related deaths. The air quality is supposed to decrease due to warmer temperatures raising the incidence of asthma attacks and other cardiovascular health outcomes. Extreme weather effects, in their turn, include the increase in stomach illnesses and mental diseases as they imply reduced the availability of safe nutrition and severe psychological pressure. The poor quality of water provoked by the global climate change leads to the spread of gastrointestinal illnesses (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2016).
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences amplifies the list of concerns with such climate-related health risks as cancer, neurological diseases, and allergies. It suggests that two strategies should be implemented to address the climate-related risks: mitigation and adaptation (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2015). From the standpoint of the nursing practice, the adaptation strategy should be adopted. In other words, nurses should consider the climate-related risks while planning their interventions.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) likewise put an emphasis on the need to employ additional strategies to address the climate-related problem. Hence, they propose that the health care community should take measure to prevent the spread of such diseases as nutrition-related illnesses and vector-borne disease (CDC, 2016). From the nursing practice perspective, nurses can provide the population with the relevant guidelines on how to minimize the infection risks to safeguard the patients.
U.S. Comparison
Research shows that the USA and other developed countries are more exposed to the negative effect of the global climate change than low-income countries. This phenomenon is determined by the fact that the former show higher rates of global emissions (Campbell-Lendrum & Corvalán, 2007). From the medical perspective, this finding has the following implication: the USA, as well as other developed countries, should strive to include the plan for reducing the emission rate in the general health promotion strategy.
In the meantime, despite the fact that the USA is more exposed to the actual risks of the global change effects, it can be considered to be more protected regarding the public awareness. Thus, the current statistics shows that American residents perceive the global change impact as a personal threat; thus, they are more concerned about the potential health-related outcomes that the residents of Africa and Latin America. The researchers explain this phenomenon by the fact that the residents of the developed countries show a higher education level and have the essential access to the relevant data sources (Leiserowitz & Howe, 2015).
From the standpoint of climate-sensitive diseases such as Vector-Borne Disease, America shows lower risk rate opposite to poor countries. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the USA has an effective health infrastructure that allows monitoring, managing, and preventing the spread of such diseases (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2016).
Regarding the air quality threats, the USA is equally exposed to these risks as other countries. Research shows that despite the fact that the county performs large contributions to the air improvement, 57 million residents still live in the environment that shows inappropriate air quality conditions (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2016).
It should be pointed out that in spite of the fact that the USA is generally less exposed to the risks of climate change impacts than the developing countries, it is affected by the increase in the diseases incidence around the world. In other words, the health of the US residents can be affected through trade and migration flows. Therefore, the problem of the global change effect should be addressed worldwide (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2016).
Summary
The problem analysis has helped to reveal the key points of concern associated with the global climate change. The main impact factors comprise extreme heat, natural disasters, poor air and water quality, and unsafe nutrition. The associated health-related outcomes include the increase in respiratory, cardiovascular, stomach, mental, neurologic and other diseases. The problem needs to be addressed complexly by various healthcare departments including nursing. Nurses should consider the described threats while composing their intervention strategies and provide the population with the relevant guidelines on prevention and management. Statistics shows that the USA is generally less exposed to the negative effects of the global climate change than the developing countries. However, that does not exclude the need for effective risk management.
Reference List
Campbell-Lendrum, D., & Corvalán, C. (2007). Climate change and developing-country cities: implications for environmental health and equity. Journal of Urban Health, 84(1), 109-117.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Climate change increases in the number and geographic range of disease-carrying insects and ticks. Web.
Leiserowitz, A., & Howe, P. (2015). Climate change awareness and concern in 119 countries. Web.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (2015). Health Impacts of Climate Change. Web.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). Climate impacts on human health. Web.