Climate Change & Disease
This term describes an increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, which can intensify heat-related health inequities and illness.
What is global warming?
Droughts impact health by reducing availability of this basic need.
What is clean water?
These frontline communities often bear the brunt of climate health effects.
What are rural and Indigenous communities?
A crop frequently consumed by medical students that is highly climate sensitive and at risk of significant decrease in production due to climate change.
What are coffee beans?
This global event overwhelmed health systems and exposed how social determinants like housing, income, and systemic racism impact health outcomes in Canada, particularly among equity-deserving populations.
What is COVID-19?
Climate change has been linked to more frequent floods that can overwhelm sanitation systems and spread this category of illness through contaminated water.
What are waterborne diseases?
This heat-related condition can be fatal, especially in the elderly.
What is heatstroke?
Rising temperatures pose special risks for these two age groups.
What are children and the elderly?
An element, found in both soil and earth’s atmosphere, that is increasingly difficult to replenish in the soil due to climate change.
What is nitrogen?
Poor air quality from increasing wildfire smoke in regions like British Columbia disproportionately affect people with pre-existing health conditions, often linked to socioeconomic status and environmental exposure.
What is asthma or respiratory illness?
Climate change increases this type of air pollution, which worsens asthma.
What is smog or ground-level ozone?
Wildfire smoke can travel thousands of miles and trigger this respiratory condition.
What is asthma?
Refugees displaced by climate disasters may experience barriers to this.
What is healthcare access?
This pollutant is the main ingredient in smog, and is produced through photochemical reactions facilitated by sunlight.
What is ground level ozone?
Rising temperatures due to climate change increases demand for this type of medical care, especially among seniors, low-income populations, and people experiencing homelessness.
What are emergency services?
As global temperatures rise, this mosquito-borne disease is spreading to new areas in Ontario.
What is West Nile virus?
Hurricanes increase the risk of this mental health consequence.
What is PTSD?
This population is more likely to suffer heat exposure in cities due to limited green space.
What are low-income communities?
This type of extreme weather event, which has become more common due to climate change, threatens both crops and directly harms at-risk populations.
What is a heat wave?
Climate-related disasters such as wildfires and floods can interrupt access to this essential supply, disproportionately affecting those with chronic illness and limited healthcare access.
What are medications?
Milder winters have led to a growing population of this arachnid vector, which transmits Borrelia burgdorferi to humans.
What is the deer tick or black-legged tick?
Following Hurricane Katrina, health authorities noted a spike in this rare but deadly bacterial infection, often contracted through contact with floodwaters.
What is Vibrio vulnificus infection?
Pregnant people exposed to extreme heat have higher risks of this birth complication.
What is preterm labor?
This source of air pollution, exacerbated by climate change, is now the main fine particulate pollutant in the air in North America during the summer?
What is wildfire smoke?
This health focused concept promotes rebuilding systems to withstand future climate stress.
What is climate resilience?