Climate change may boost health risks
Friday, March 28, 2008 7:53 PM PDT
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E-mail this articleState scientists predict more rain, warmer temperatures will lead to more floods and
higher risks of diseases
By
Stephanie Mathieu
smathieu@tdn.com
Scientists expect the average yearly temperature in Washington to rise one degree Fahrenheit every 10 years, and the climate change will have massive impacts on our health, a state Department of Health official said Thursday.
Higher temperatures caused by an increase in "greenhouse"
gasses, such as carbon dioxide, likely will cause more heat-related
deaths, said Gregg Grunenfelder, assistant secretary of the department's environmental health division.
He also said the state must prepare for more disease spread by warmth-loving pests such as ticks and mosquitoes, asthma flare-ups caused by increased forest fires and pollen, and more floods.
"We on our own are not going to stop climate change from happening. ... It is reality," Grunenfelder said. "How do we prepare and adapt?"
Grunenfelder is part of a work group created by Gov. Chris Gregoire last year to study climate change. He presented the group's findings Thursday afternoon in a public meeting at the Cowlitz County Health Department.
Climate change is melting the state's snow pack, which is used as a water source in dry months, and spring runoff from the snow is happening a month earlier than it did 50 years ago. That could cause more droughts, Grunenfelder said.
"We have seen a substantial loss in snow pack in the Cascade Mountains," he said. "The glaciers have receded."
At the same time, Grunenfelder said the state should expect 2 inches more of rainfall each year and more unpredictable weather.
During flood events, water becomes contaminated and many residents are forced to boil their water. Catastrophic weather events also affect victims psychologically and extreme heat can cause anxiety to boil over.
Although there have only
been two cases of the deadly, mosquito-borne West Nile Virus reported in Washington, Grunenfelder said, "our time is coming. ... I think we've been lucky,"
Hot temperatures, which have reached as high as 118 degrees F in the Tri-Cities, are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the country, and heat affects elderly, poor and disabled people the most.
"Bill Gates is not going to be affected very much by climate change," Grunenfelder said. "It's not the poor who are driving down (Interstate) 5 in a Humvee."
Because of drier summers,
forest fires have increased fourfold since 1986, and fire season lasts nearly 80 days longer now, Grunenfelder said. Grunenfelder said 400,000 adults and 120,000 children in the state have asthma, and every year 5,000 of them are hospitalized and 100 die of complications from the breathing condition.
His workgroup determined the state needs to bolster its emergency and disease outbreak response systems and limit building in places prone to future floods or mudslides. Grunenfelder also said the state should look at ways to minimize "urban sprawl," or people living farther away from the places they work.
"We all want our quarter acre or half acre of land" in the suburbs, he said.
Grunenfelder said the federal government has been slow to create new rules to quell climate change, causing some states to lead the way. But he predicts Washington state lawmakers next year will begin to fund solutions.
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