Scientists uncover disturbing new threat increasing the risk of serious illness for millions: 'The impacts ... cannot be overstated'
When people think about increasing temperatures, they often consider the effects on people in terms of natural disasters or extreme weather events.
However, News Medical has reported that research published in Nature Reviews Urology has uncovered a new consequence of a constantly heating planet.
Researchers decided to explore the effects of the changing climate on urological diseases and whether treatment for urological diseases also affected the environment.
They discovered that changes to average temperatures in an area had a significant impact on the increase in urological diseases in recent years and that treatment for these diseases left a considerable carbon footprint.
The study introduced three tiers to help understand the urology-climate link.
The first tier involves direct effects from a constantly warming planet, such as dehydration. The second tier involves exposure to pollutants and contaminants, while the final tier involves the ways extreme weather events and other effects of increasing temperatures can disrupt healthcare.
On the flip side, the study examined how robot surgeries, high-tech interventions, and other treatments for urological diseases can create massive waste and amounts of carbon dioxide. It estimates that the total carbon dioxide generated by the healthcare system in the U.S. is approximately 587 million tons.
As News Medical stated in its article, "The impacts of anthropogenic climate change on human health, while difficult to emphatically measure, cannot be overstated."
This study is a vital one, as it focuses on a medical area that hasn't been focused on as much as others when it comes to the climate.
While we already know that rising cases of asthma and other respiratory issues, spreading pathogens, and more can be linked to environmental factors, the more scientists study the link between diseases and temperatures, the better health outcomes will be.
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By showing how an ever-heating atmosphere can increase urological disease in people, researchers may be encouraged to look at the links with other diseases on the rise. Meanwhile, more people may be encouraged to make sustainable changes in their lives.
Plus, by knowing that healthcare treatments, in turn, contribute more pollution to the environment, researchers and policymakers may be able to determine ways to make healthcare more sustainable, thus reducing carbon pollution.
The World Health Organization has developed One Health, which aims to balance the health of humans, the environment, and animals.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa developed an interactive map to study how the changing climate affects the spread of disease.
Plenty of other organizations and agencies are also taking closer looks at how climate affects disease and vice versa to ascertain what they might be able to do to prioritize human healthcare and the environment at the same time.
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