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15 ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SICK!
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“All things are connected, like the blood that unites us. We did not weave the fabric of life; we are but a small part. Everything
we do to that fabric, we do to ourselves.” Chief Seattle’s words are as alive today as they were a century and a half ago when
they were first spoken. “When a man spits on the earth, he spits on himself,” he continued. Climate change affects all of us
directly. While we are fortunate to live in a part of the world with technologies that can mitigate its impact, the health of southern
countries is cruelly affected. But already, diseases that were previously unheard of here are knocking at our door.
Health Check-up
The Picture in Canada
To deaths from drowning, accidents, landslides or heat waves due
to extreme climatic events that afflict southern nations, we can
add those caused by the contamination of water tables (typhoid
and cholera) and soil degradation (famine) that these catastrophes provoke. Climate change, by creating conditions favourable
to the breeding of insects, encourages the outbreak of some of the
planet’s deadliest diseases. Malaria is the silent killer of more than
3,000 people a day, the equivalent of the crashing of ten jumbo
jets. The mosquito that transmits the virus thrives in stagnant
pools left by the abundant rains of tropical climates. Since 1970,
the insect is now found at altitudes 150 metres higher in the tropical regions where it is found. The only explanation for that is
climate change. Dengue fever, another virus transmitted by
mosquitoes, has migrated since 1990 from equatorial regions as
far as Mexico, Argentina and even the north of Australia. River
blindness, another insect-borne disease, afflicts 3.5 million people
a year. The more tropical temperatures approach higher latitudes,
the more the species typical of those environments carry with
them diseases previously foreign to those areas. Malaria has now
reached southern Europe, where it claims 80,000 victims a year.
The virus was even found in Toronto in 2000. A series of extreme
climate variations (mild winters, rainy springs, dry and hot summers) is responsible for the appearance in the north of the West
Nile virus. Cases of infection in humans have been recorded in
Montréal, and a number of birds infected by insects carrying the
disease have been found dead in the Saint Lawrence Valley over
the past several years. Lyme disease, transmitted by ticks, has
also been moving to higher latitudes in humid temperate climates.
In the developing world, the first victims of climate change are the
elderly, children, and those with pulmonary disorders. The heat
wave that struck Europe in the summer of 2003 resulted in the
deaths of thousands of people from heat stroke, smog and the
lack of air-conditioning.
According to Health Canada, climate change will have an impact
on the health and welfare of our population. The increased number of heat waves, periods of extreme cold and episodes of smog
along with the proliferation of disease-carrying insects, water and
food contamination, as well as the destruction of the stratospheric
ozone layer will affect more and more people, in particular at-risk
populations such as the elderly, children and the poor.
A large number of Canadians living in cities are already exposed
to high levels of pollution exacerbated by the presence of groundlevel ozone. On a national level, almost 20,000 premature deaths
are attributable every year to atmospheric pollution. It is anticipated that the number of days when the thermometer exceeds
30oC will go from 10 to almost 50 in the southern-Ontario city of
London by 2050, increasing the mortality rates associated with
those extreme temperatures. In 2000, drought followed by heavy
rains contributed to the contamination of drinking water in Walkerton, Ontario, where the E. coli bacterium caused the deaths of
seven people. Increased temperatures also encourage the growth
of allergenic plants, which is reflected in the explosion in the number of asthma cases observed in the past twenty years. The transmission by biting insects of diseases such as West Nile virus is a
source of concern to public health officials. The recent epidemic of
SARS in Toronto showed that we are ill-prepared to deal with diseases that up until now were unknown in our latitudes.
In a country where the temperature is always a topic of conversation, dramatic climate events can also have an impact on the
mental health of populations affected by a loss of income, a
reduction in quality of life, or a construction holiday spent hiding
from the elements in a soggy tent. Extreme climatic conditions
also increase risks associated with workplace health and safety
and with travel, while placing an additional burden on already
overextended health care systems.
Based on educational material from the Des idées dans l’airž! (DIDA) kit available from the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) http://eav.csq.qc.net/dida/