Impact of Climate Change on Human Health

Human health is easily affected by climate change. The rapid and effective nature of climate change has different effects on people. With climate change, the frequency, severity, time and duration of climate events vary on human health. In fact, this change causes permanent climate-related disease in some regions. Malaria is an example of this.

Geography is the most important factor affecting human health in climate change. The saying that geography is destiny applies here. For example, a worker working at a construction site in Dubai is more affected by global warming due to heat. or an agricultural worker living in the Black Sea region may be malnourished by the uneven rainfall. Due to its dryness and sudden precipitation, the water it drinks can bring along many diseases. 

Climate change also affects human health in terms of age and gender. Small children are less vulnerable to heat as their surface area is small. Extreme heat causes diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, dizziness, and fever. A little memory from the military, as a person from Denizli, as a person living in Istanbul, I did my military service in Hatay Iskenderun. The temperature was 50 degrees. I had never seen 50 degrees Celsius in my life until then. Even when we drank, we were under the sun for a long time. Do you think you vomited, fainted and fell, did you say you got a fever and went to the infirmary, did you think that sunspots appeared on the skin, a lot of diseases occurred in that short time. 

The impact of gender on human health varies from region to region. We can give a few examples from the IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) regarding this effect;

• In the USA , men have a higher risk of dying in flood events.

• According to another study conducted in Hunan, China , the causes of death of men during floods are usually due to agriculture.

• In Canada , Eskimo men are in the risk group due to the breaking of the ice on the sea surface, while women are under threat because it is difficult to reach food.

• In 2003, the death rate caused by heat waves in Paris was higher for women among all age groups, while it was higher for men in the working age group (between 25-64 years).

• In Bangladesh , women are more affected by extreme climatic events than men, as they are more exposed to poverty, malnutrition and flooding.

The general health status of the community is very important in terms of climate extremes. Climate extremes play a role in the transmission of infectious diseases. The current epidemic Pandemic is actually an example of this. When the pandemic first started, they were saying that if summer comes, we will be relieved. They were saying that it was not contagious in the summer, the rate of infection was lower. Here, the general health status of the society is important. The stronger your immunity, the more you can survive against the epidemic and infectious disease. Again, a pandemic example, they were saying that this disease was not transmitted to Turks in March 2020 when the pandemic first appeared. However, due to the flood events in the USA, diseases caused by arbovirus have emerged. Again, some chronic diseases such as diabetes and ischemic heart disease increase the risk of death from temperature rise.Sub-Saharan Africa 's due to climate change -for example; poverty, chronic diseases, extreme climate events, malnutrition – health threats are much higher. 

Socio-economic status is also important, which you appreciate. Poor countries are more affected because they have a lack of access to health care and cannot find solutions to climate extremes such as floods. Of course, there is no problem in rich countries. Sudden population increases and sudden climate movements can catch countries off guard. As in the example of the pandemic, although the health sector in Turkey has developed, there have been problems with occupancy in hospitals around the world. 
We can say that climate change affects human health in three main ways. Climate change directly affects human health by increasing the frequency of extreme climate events. temperature riseIt is one of the important factors affecting human health. The increase in greenhouse gas emissions with the industrial revolution has led to an increase in global average temperatures. Global average temperature has increased by about 1°C since 1880, and two-thirds of this increase occurred after 1975[1]. Unless measures are taken against this climate change caused by humanity, it is expected that there will be a decrease in the number of cold days and nights, and an increase in the number of warm days and nights. In addition, it causes an increase in deaths caused by the increase in daily maximum temperatures and is expected to continue to occur. 

Second, climate change indirectly affects human health through natural systems. Climate change may cause an increase in the number of disease carriers . Thus, some diseases spread quickly. These diseases; malaria, dengue fever and tick-borne diseases can be given as examples. Malaria , of which we all hear the name, is transmitted by mosquitoes. In 2010, 216 million cases of malaria were seen worldwide. The global death toll from malaria is estimated at 1,238,000 in 2010. In addition, some climate-sensitive parasites, bacteria and viruses can be transmitted through water and food. For example, vibrio cholerae is a waterborne and cholera disease .is a pathogenic bacterium. Cholera can be transmitted through contaminated drinking water, contact with seawater, or seafood. The risk of infectious disease is affected by temperature, rain, changes in sea salinity and pH. Rotavirus disease is another foodborne disease that is affected by seasonal variation. This contagious disease killed 450,000 children under the age of 5 in 2008. While talking about the impact of natural systems on human health, we should also focus on air pollution. Almost all air pollutants except carbon dioxide are harmful to human health. In the USA, tropospheric ozone levels are estimated to be responsible for millions of acute respiratory symptoms and thousands of premature deaths.

Finally, climate change affects human health through economic and social disruption . Our access to food depends on agricultural production and socio-economic factors. Climate change is very likely to affect global and regional food security by disrupting food production, reducing access to food and making use more difficult . In addition, global climate change also affects mental health . Severe climatic events such as floods, droughts and storms can increase the stress level. It has been observed that traumas caused by disasters cause severe anxiety reactions and psychiatric problems such as depression and aggression in the long term.