Physicians and the Environment
- Paul S. Auerbach, MD, MS
- Author Affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- COLD CLIMATE
- ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
- GREENHOUSE EFFECT
- OZONE
- PHYSICIANS
- POPULATION GROWTH
- SANITATION
- WATER SUPPLY
- WORLD HEALTH
The medical profession has responded to adverse situations of global reach, such as epidemic diseases and natural disasters. As the world's scientists, governments, and businesses now confront the state of the environment, physicians also must be prepared to respond.
The environment is today's most pressing global issue. Environmental conditions contribute to the presence or intensity of many medical conditions, as with temperature-related morbidity and mortality, health effects of extreme weather events (eg, storms, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and precipitation extremes) and their sequelae (eg, oceanic algae blooms), ecological change (eg, the potency of certain harmful plants), starvation, allergies, pollution-related health effects, water- and food-borne diseases, and vector- and rodent-borne diseases.1,2
Global climate change and other environmental issues are worthy of physicians' attention and understanding, although the full eventual effects on human health are not well defined. Some of the most important issues include global warming, depletion of stratospheric …
