Draft Final Climate Change and Health Impacts Point ... - ANTHC

(Hennessy et al., 2008). Approximately 18% of households in the Maniilaq Area do not have access to
piped water service. Infants in villages with the lowest percentage of homes with running water are
hospitalized for pneumonia 11 times more often than infants in the overall U.S. population.
Warming temperatures may lead to an increase in food‐borne and gastrointestinal diseases (Parkinson,
2008). Climate change may indirectly increase the risk of infectious disease when extreme weather
events damage or disrupts sanitation services. Infectious diseases are also spreading to the Arctic from
warmer areas; examples include giardia, a parasite in beavers that contaminates water, and brucella,
the bacteria that causes brucellosis, a disease like tuberculosis that is carried by both sea and land
mammals. Climate change could also decrease some disease, as the number of respiratory infections in
a population is primarily determined by length of the winter disease (flu) season.
Chronic Illness
Chronic Illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (e.g. stroke), metabolic disease
(e.g. diabetes), and pulmonary (lung) disease, are on the rise among Alaska Natives, including the
Maniilaq Area. Practicing a healthy lifestyle is an important preventive behavior for all of these diseases.
In the Inupiat culture, social structure, economy, and individual health are grounded in the subsistence
lifestyle, which includes a diet based on the consumption of traditional foods.
The traditional subsistence diet is rich in essential nutrients and provides a wide range of welldocumented
protective health benefits against chronic illness, as well as contributing to cultural
integrity, mental health, physical activity, and overall wellness. An emerging health risk for Alaska
Natives is the potential negative effects of climate change on the availability and quality of traditional
subsistence foods.
Cancer: In the early part of the 20 th century, cancer was not a major cause of death among Alaska
Natives. But cancer rates have been gradually rising, due largely to longer life span, changing diet, and
growing behavioral risk factors such as tobacco use. During the 1990s, as the overall U.S. cancer death
rate declined, the rates of cancer among Alaska Natives increased (ANTHC, 2004).
Between 2004 and 2007, cancer was the second leading cause of death among Alaska Natives (ANTHC,
2009). Nine types of cancer are more frequent among Alaska Natives than in the U.S. white population:
nasopharynx, esophagus, stomach, colon/rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, lung, and kidney.
Between 1989 and 2004, cancer was the leading cause of mortality (age adjusted) in the Maniilaq Area.
The most frequent occurring cancer among men was colon, for women breast cancer, and colon cancer
for both sexes combined (ANTHC, 2008).
Climate‐related influences on cancer risk include impacts to subsistence lifestyle and the potential to
increase exposure to environmental contaminants that are from local sources (such as dump sites) or
from global sources and transported to the Arctic by ocean, air currents, and migratory species. Thawing
of ice, snow, and permafrost mobilizes pollutants (both natural and man‐made) including carcinogens
like PCBs and DDT, and metals like mercury (Berner & Furgal, 2005).
Cardiovascular Disease: Cardiovascular disease includes diseases of the heart and circulation system.
Along with various forms of heart disease and stroke, it is the leading cause of death in the United States
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