An influential medical journal has joined the fight against global warming.
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), one of the world's oldest medical journals, recently committed itself to increasing the public's knowledge of climate change because of its devastating effects on public health.
"We clearly recognize that climate change has become a health emergency," said Caren Solomon, deputy editor at NEJM.
As part of these efforts, NEJM launched a series focusing on climate change and public health, with a key article, published June 16, focusing on the impact of fossil fuel emissions on children, including dermatologic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Kari Nadeau, who is the director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University in California, has seen the medical effects on children's health first-hand.
"The children coming into my clinic have terrible asthma," said Nadeau, who co-authored the NEJM article in question. "They also have blood pressure changes. There are things going on, for example, in the way that their bodies are growing that are affected by wildfire smoke."
Nadeau says children are especially vulnerable because they metabolize their air intake much quicker while still in critical stages of development. Unfortunately, children of colour or those from low-income households are more at risk of the health effects of climate change and air pollution, due to poor health-care access and food insecurity.
The health impacts of climate change on children aren't just physical.
"Air pollution is now associated with mental health problems in children in a number of studies in the U.S. and in Europe," said Frederica Perera, an environmental health sciences professor at Columbia University and the director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in New York.
Perrera, who was the lead author of NEJM's article on fossil-fuel pollution and kids' health, noted there is also consistent anxiety and depression in children who are reconciling their future with the growing impacts of climate change.
The NEJM's climate change series also features an opinion piece on how much power the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. has in regulating greenhouse gas emissions, while another opinion piece focuses on the impact of climate change on health and care delivery.
Solomon said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in February on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability reignited concerns about what global warming will reap if left unchecked.
"At the same time, recognizing that there's been very little progress on the part of the U.S. government or many other governments to address this, we felt that it was important to redouble our efforts in this regard," Solomon said.
This commitment comes after NEJM editors — along with the editors of 200 other health journals worldwide — signed an editorial in September 2021 calling for global emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity and protect health.
The authors noted a number of interventions that can reduce the negative effects of climate change. Governments can enact comprehensive regulations around renewable energy sources and adaptation plans that include action steps for vulnerable populations. Meanwhile, communities can set up evacuation plans and centres for refuge.
On a patient level, physicians can provide as much information and resources as possible. Nadeau recalls a time when a single mother came to her shortly after the wildfires in California started in August 2020. The mother didn't have the means to move her family out of the area, and her children had severe asthma, which was being exacerbated by the smoke.
"As doctors and with the community, we were able to get her free filters brought to her home," Nadeau said. Within a day of installing them, the kids' breathing difficulties decreased dramatically.
As a mother herself, Nadeau knows the importance of creating a safe and healthy environment for her children. That's why she wanted to contribute to the medical journal and help raise awareness of the broader effects of climate change.
"I absolutely feel compelled as a mom, as a pediatrician and as a researcher," Nadeau said. "I'm inspired more to make sure that we can do something now." (CBC)