Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Rise In Infectious Diseases, Preventable Deaths: The Climate Forecast On Health
Grist and AP: Warming Planet May Have Overwhelming Impact On Infectious Diseases
All of these factors create conditions ripe for human illness. Diseases old and new are becoming more prevalent and even cropping up in places they’ve never been found before. Researchers have begun piecing together a patchwork of evidence that illuminates the formidable threat climate-driven diseases currently pose to human health — and the scope of the dangers to come. “This is not just something off in the future,” Neil Vora, a physician with the nonprofit Conservation International, said. “Climate change is here. People are suffering and dying right now.” (Teirstein, 7/18)
Reuters: Intensifying Heat Waves Prompt Health Warnings For Europe, US
A global pattern of heat waves scorching parts of Europe, Asia and the United States intensified on Tuesday, with the World Meteorological Organization warning of an increased risk of deaths linked to excessively high temperatures. Americans were facing a medley of extreme weather, from blazing heat from Texas to Southern California to smoke-choked air wafting into the Midwest from Canada's wildfires. Flood warnings were up for Vermont towns that were inundated just last week, while Tropical Storm Calvin was expected to hit the Pacific island state of Hawaii later on Tuesday. (Salgado, 7/18)
Inside Climate News: The World Is Reeling From Record Heat And Flooding. Scientists Say Its The Cost Of Climate Inaction
A strengthening El Niño is pushing temperatures in countries around the world to record highs this month, exacerbating unprecedented heat waves and triggering deadly storms in ways that scientists say wouldn’t be possible without the influence of climate change. (Tigue, 7/18)
Voice of America: Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Dying From Preventable Heat-Related Causes
As global warming intensifies and deadly heatwaves spread across the world, becoming the “new normal,” the World Meteorological Organization is calling on governments to adopt heat action plans to protect “hundreds of thousands of people dying from preventable heat-related causes each year.” (Schlein, 7/18)
NPR: How To Avoid Heat-Related Illnesses
With excessive heat advisories in effect across the U.S., here's how to avoid heat-related illnesses. (Aubrey, 7/18)
The extreme heat is driving political thinking —
Politico: Record Temperatures Kindle Interest In Heat Legislation
With several states experiencing punishing temperatures, some lawmakers want to treat extreme heat the same as other natural disasters. It's just one of several proposals on Capitol Hill in response to rising temperatures and their toll on people. As heat waves intensify, so does the attention on action from Congress. (Alvey, 7/18)
Meanwhile, heat and climate change hit air quality —
Los Angeles Times: Worse Air Quality In L.A. Expected During Heat Wave
The heat wave baking Southern California not only raises the risk of wildfires and heat-related illness but could bring another hardship: bad air quality. The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an air quality alert for inland areas of the South Coast Air Basin and the Coachella Valley because of elevated levels of ozone likely to cause poor air quality during the afternoon and early evening. The alert took effect Friday at 2 p.m. and continues until Tuesday at 8 p.m. (Lin, 7/18)
The New York Times: Canada Wildfire Smoke Worsens Air Quality In Georgia And North Carolina
Smoke from wildfires in Canada that pushed deep into the United States this week has reached new areas in the South, including in North Carolina and Georgia, that had mostly escaped the toxic drift blowing in from the fires in June, officials said. “Horrific up here!” Merry Miller Weis, a 70-year-old resident in the Western North Carolina mountains, wrote in an email to state climate scientists. “The mountains aren’t even visible. This is the absolute worst since the beginning of the Canadian fires.” (Hauser, 7/18)
Stateline: Workers Lack Protections When Wildfire Smoke Makes The Air Dangerous
Millions of American workers have breathed in dangerous levels of air pollution this year as smoke from Canada’s record wildfire season blankets cities across the Northeast. Now experts are calling on federal regulators to adopt standards protecting outdoor workers from worsening air quality, potentially modeled after the few states that have such standards, including California and Oregon. (Dewey, 7/18)
