Climate Change and Switzerland 2050 - OcCC - SCNAT

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Climate Change and Switzerland 2050 | Health 67 Health Authors Charlotte Braun, Chair Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Basel Miges Baumann Federal Office of Public Health, Bern Andreas Biedermann Ärztinnen und Ärzte für Umweltschutz, Herzogenbuchsee Ariane Cagienard Federal veterinary office, Bern Joachim Frey Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology, University of Bern Regula Gehrig MeteoSwiss, Zurich Bruno Gottstein Institute of Parasitology, University of Bern Anke Huss Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern Urs Neu Editor, ProClim–, Swiss Academy of Sciences Lukas Perler Federal veterinary office, Bern Christoph Schierz Center for Organizational and Occupational Sciences, ETH Zurich Oliver Thommen Dombois Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Basel Ursula Ulrich-Vögtlin Federal Office of Public Health, Bern Jakob Zinsstag Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel
68 Climate Change and Switzerland 2050 | Health 1. Introduction Background Climate change does not affect human health in an isolated way but in combination with other socio-economic and ecological changes. A change in climatic conditions affects human health in a variety of ways. An increase in the frequency of extreme events, such as heat waves, storms and flood, may have fatal consequences, the distribution of disease, e.g. tick-borne meningitis or salmonella poisoning, may change, for instance of tick-borne meningitis or salmonella poisoning, and the danger of food poisoning increases with rising temperatures. However, most of these trends are not solely affected by climate change but by other factors as well. Thus, for the spread of malaria in Switzerland, the natural surroundings (e.g. bogs) and hygienic conditions are of major importance, whereas the climate is of minor importance. The following chapter discusses possible climatically caused changes that will affect health in the coming 50 years, and that may be of relevance for social and health care policy. The following topics are covered in detail: heat waves, extreme events, food poisoning, respiratory diseases, vector-borne diseases and water pollution due to floods. Areas where experts consider the impact of climate change to be minor have not been Secondary benefits to the health sector taken into account. This mainly relates to the problem of introducing illnesses by migration. Migration increases the danger of spreading infectious diseases and of introducing germs unknown to the local population. Furthermore, illnesses that have already been eradicated, such as polio and tuberculosis, can be reintroduced. Here, climate is only a minor factor, with such migration mainly occurring for other reasons. Environmental refugees mostly move to neighbouring countries rather than to far off industrial countries. Apart from the mentioned areas with negative effects, there are also some positive developments to be expected, in particular regarding cold and frost periods. With increasing warming, their frequency and the associated mortality decrease. Cold periods with a significantly increased mortality are already very rare and big changes are therefore not to be expected. However, the fact that society will be ill-prepared for severe cold spells because they occur more rarely could have negative consequences and result in more serious health effects. Measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions also result in a reduction of air pollutants and thereby lead to a decrease in the frequency of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (secondary benefits). The effects of climate protection measures are not discussed in this chapter. Emission reduction measures will have hardly any effect on the expected temperature increase before 2050; they will have a significant effect only in the second half of this century. However, the reduction in harmful air pollutants will be immediately noticeable in the health sector. It will, for instance, cause a decrease in respiratory diseases.
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Climate Change and Switzerland 2050 - OcCC - SCNAT

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