Publications by the National Assessment Synthesis Team

• Human Health section of the National Assessment's Overview: [HTML] [PDF]

• Human Health chapter (Chapter 15) of the National Assessment's Foundation: [PDF] [Color Graphics Only, including links to larger & higher resolution images.]

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Links to Material from the Health Assessment Group

• Health Sector Assessment Home Page (Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health)

• Climate Change and Human Health (PDF).  Brochure (dtd May 2001).  Concise, illustrated and produced for a general audience.

• The Potential Health Impacts of Climate Variability and Change for the United States. Executive Summary of the Report of the Health Sector of the US National Assessment.  Published in April 2000 in Environmental Health Perspectives.

• Human Health Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the United States.  Published in the May 2001 supplemental issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.  See also press release (dtd 2 May 2001) from Johns Hopkins University: Expert scientific panel releases national assessment of climate change and health in the United States: impact could be far-reaching.

• Human Health Sector Team

• Outline/Description of Assessment Project (November 1998)

• Background for the Human Health Sector Assessment.

• Human Health Sector Request for Comments from the Public Health Community (Nov 1998)

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Related Articles from the National Assessment's Newsletter, Acclimations.

• Health Sector Assessment Nears Completion - Michael McGeehin and  Jonathan Patz.  (March/April 2000)

• Human Health.  (November/December 1998)

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Issues Covered

The human health sector looked at how climate affects human health in the United States and at how climate change and variability might affect our health. For example, heat waves can cause death and illness, especially among the elderly poor. Air pollution, which is worse in hot weather, can make people with respiratory disease sicker and can make breathing harder for everyone. People can be hurt or even killed in severe storms and floods, or can be made sick by unclean storm water. A change in climate might increase the risk of exposure to disease-carrying rodents and insects.

 

Assessment Approach

The health sector team analyzed scientific research and government data on and how climate change might affect our health. In addition, the team developed a limited number of quantitative models of projected or possible future health impacts, where reliable data were available. The eleven members of the health sector team came from a range of government, academic, and private institutions, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, the University of South Florida, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Electric Power Research Institute.