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[SANET-MG] global climate change the duty of health care providers
Global Environmental Change: What Can Health Care Providers and the
Environmental Health Community Do About It Now?
Brian S. Schwartz,1,2,3 Cindy Parker,1 Thomas A. Glass,2 and Howard Hu
1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and 2Department of
Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 3Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School
of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 4Department of Environmental
Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, USA
Abstract
The debate about whether global environmental change is real is now over
; in its wake is the realization that it is happening more rapidly than
predicted. These changes constitute a profound challenge to human
health, both as a direct threat and as a promoter of other risks. We
call on health care providers to inform themselves about these issues
and to become agents of change in their communities. It is our
responsibility as clinicians to educate patients and their communities
on the connections between regressive policies, unsustainable behaviors,
global environmental changes, and threats to health and security. We
call on professional organizations to assist in educating their members
about these issues, in helping clinicians practice behavior change with
their patients, and in adding their voices to this issue in our
statehouses and Congress. We call for the development of carbon- and
other environmental-labeling of consumer products so individuals can
make informed choices ; we also call for the rapid implementation of
policies that provide tangible economic incentives for choosing
environmentally sustainable products and services. We urge the
environmental health community to take up the challenge of developing a
global environmental health index that will incorporate human health
into available "planetary health" metrics and that can be used as a
policy tool to evaluate the impact of interventions and document spatial
and temporal shifts in the healthfulness of local areas. Finally, we
urge our political, business, public health, and academic leaders to
heed these environmental warnings and quickly develop regulatory and
policy solutions so that the health of populations and the integrity of
their environments will be ensured for future generations. Key words:
behavior change, climate change, health impacts. Environ Health Perspect
114:1807–1812 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9313 available via
http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 5 September 2006]
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