Family Medicine

World Book of Family Medicine – European Edition 2015
We are also teachers, and need to impress on the next generations of health care professionals the urgency of tackling
these global health threats.
Finally, we could be advocates for our planet, advocates for the urgent transformations required by our societies, to
gain control of carbon emissions, and reduce over-consumption and inequity. Family doctors are well-respected
community based scientists. There is one of us in almost every community around the globe. We are uniquely placed
to be effective actors (7). My hope is that we exert our well-deserved influence and credibility, as individuals, and also
as medical organizations, in the name of redirecting our planet towards health and sustainability.
Take Home Messages
Environmental factors are responsible for a significant burden of illness.
Environmental causes of illness are “upstream”, and often not recognized.
An exposure history, using the CHP mnemonic, is a useful clinical tool.
Climate change and planetary sustainability are pressing global issues.
Family doctors have a role in greening their clinics and hospitals, educating the next generation of doctors,
and advocating individually and in our organizations, for planetary health.
Original Abstact
http://www.woncaeurope.org/content/ws-013-environmental-medicine-family-practice
References
1. Pruss-Ustun A. Corvalan C. How much disease burden can be prevented by environmental interventions. Epidemiology.
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2. Boyd DR, Genuis SJ. The environmental burden of disease in Canada: Respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer,
and congenital affliction. Environmental Research. 2008; 106(2):240-249.
3. Ezzati M. Indoor air pollution and health in developing countries. Lancet. 2005; 366(9480):104-106.
4. Marshall L, Weir E, Abelsohn A, Sanborn MD. Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 1. Taking an
exposure history. CMAJ 2002;166(8):1049-55. Available at: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/166/8/1049
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to diesel traffic in persons with asthma. N Engl J Med 2007;357(23):2348-58.
6. Horton R, Beaglehole R, Bonita R, Raeburn J, McKee M, Wall S. From public to planetary health: A manifesto. The Lancet.
2014; 383:847-847.
7. Blashki G, Abelsohn A, Woollard R, Arya N, Parkes WM, Kendal P, Bell E, Bell RW. General Practitioners' responses to
global climate change - lessons from clinical experience and the clinical method. Asia Pacific Family Medicine. 2012,11:6
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