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FOR
PHYSICIANS
The
changing face of global ecosystems is having a profound impact on the
health trends in human populations around the world. From increasing
rates of skin cancer to more frequent bouts of asthma, the damages mankind
has inflicted on the natural order of the planet are now boomeranging
back to become threats to all of us.
Physicians
and other care givers can:
- Provide more information
about environmental health impacts to your patients. A recent
study by Dr. Jonathan Temte demonstrates that most patients want
to hear more about environmental issues from their physician, and
most people trust physicians more than any other source of information
about environmental issues and their personal health. Read
the results of Dr. Temte's study.
- For example, many
people in urban areas may wonder how problems with the health
of wildlife and natural habitats could possibly impact them
in the city -- in fact, there
is a very real link.
- Visit the Biodiversity
and Human Health slide show.
- Request
copies of the Biodiversity and Human Health brochure
for distribution to patients in your office or clinic.
- Use this site as a source
of information and ideas to help direct patient interviews and discussions
about lifestyle choices. You will also find resources here that
may help reveal environmentally-influenced risk factors to which
your patients are exposed.
- Direct patients to this
website for further reading.
- Read more about the
health impacts of biodiversity loss at the Harvard
Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment.
Choose a topic
from the menu buttons to the left or visit our Ecology
Library for other ideas. You can also look up terms in our Ecology
Dictionary.
In
the News:
- Links
Between Air Pollution and Human Health Clarified.
Researchers found that
increases in fine airborne particles known as particulates (largely
from fossil fuel combustion) substantially increases the risk of
death from cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer.
- Doctors
want problem kids blood checked for lead. Lead is a neurotoxin
that has been blamed for a variety of learning problems in children.
Screening children with behavior problems could help to pinpoint
the cause and prevent further damage to the child's nervous system.
"We argue that this group of children should be routinely screened
for lead," Gill Lewendon said in a report in the journal Archives
of Disease in Childhood.
- Ozone
depletion increases skin cancer risk.
Regardless of current causes for the rise in skin cancer, most research
agrees that current and future increases in ultraviolet radiation
exposure due to ozone depletion will tend to exacerbate the trend
toward higher incidence rates of melanoma.
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