The climate crisis is seriously harming children’s health – 2024-03-30 18:57:18

Many children across the length and breadth of the Earth are already losing the most precious thing – their health – at the mercy of the climate crisis. And unless there is immediate global action against climate change, things will only get worse. This is the warning of the first meta-analysis of all existing scientific evidence on the impact of the climate crisis on children’s health, which was published in the scientific journal “Science of the Total Environment”. Its lead authors spoke to Vima about the dangers of destroying our planet to developing children’s organisms, ultimately undermining the… development of humanity itself.

As explained by the head of the large meta-analysis, Dr Lewis Windaa researcher at the University of Western Australia in Perth, “we reviewed 163 studies from around the world (note: Greek studies were not included). Our goal was to show the effects of the climate crisis on children’s health in order to contribute to better planning to protect and improve the health of future generations.”

Serious consequences

And these effects were many and serious: an increase in premature births, higher incidence of respiratory diseases, increase in hospitalizations and deaths are among others the present of child health, which portends an even worse future. The other head of the study, Professor of Global Ecology at Flinders University in Adelaide dr Corey Bradshaw, noted that the most shocking finding from the meta-analysis concerned preterm births:

“We saw that temperature extremes increase the risk of prematurity by 60%, respiratory disease by 49%, and morbidity and mortality by 42% on average.” According to the professor, “increasing the risk of prematurity undermines the future of current and future generations as preterm births carry potential complications and life-long health problems for millions, if not hundreds of millions, of children around the world.”

The possible causes

To the question of why “hot” temperatures lead to premature births Dr. Bradshaw replied that “The pathway of the connection is not yet fully understood, but it appears that heat stress causes a redistribution of blood flow in the body of the pregnant woman: blood is diverted away from the fetus and flows towards the mother’s skin, possibly ‘stealing’ with this way oxygen and nutrients at a critical phase of fetal development during the last trimester of pregnancy and ultimately limiting the growth of the fetus or leading to pre-eclampsia in the woman. For this reason, a solution would be for pregnant women in the last trimester to be in well-air-conditioned areas when it is very hot in order to reduce the chances of premature birth.”

Difficult present

Even the most privileged countries are not immune to the devastating impact of climate change on children’s health./ Photo: Janko Ferlic/ Unsplash

Dr Winda pointed out that most of the studies analyzed involved high-income countries, “a fact that cannot provide a clear picture of what is happening in the less privileged countries, where the situation is expected to be worse due to insufficient access of the population to health care but also due to a lack of infrastructure and stable access to food. But even the most privileged countries are not spared from the devastating effect of climate change on children’s health”.

In fact, as he added, this destructive effect has many “faces”: “Extreme cold mainly breeds respiratory diseases, while drought and extreme rainfall can lead to a reduction in growth mainly”.

Ominous future

The researcher stressed that we should not forget that the findings of the new study were based on existing data and thus reflect the… crisis in child health caused by the climate crisis we are already experiencing. “Children around the world are already in poorer health, and this is unfortunately expected to worsen in the future as the climate crisis gets bigger.”

This is why we must act now in order to protect our children and give them the (inalienable) right to have those children who will be healthy. As Dr. Winda concluded, “we need to develop public health strategies to address climate-related morbidity and mortality while making efforts to reduce anthropogenic climate change. Only in this way will we be able to protect today’s children and those who will be born in the future”.

Otherwise, inaction will only lead in one direction, according to Professor Bradshaw: “It will lead to a future in which millions of children will have health problems throughout their lives due to prematurity – and prematurity will be even more common than it is today.” In a future that no human (let alone a child) would want to be their future…

The presence of greenery reduces the risk

The presence of greenery can moderate heat levels and reduce the risk of premature births./ Photo: Thiago Cerqueira/ Unsplash

The risk of premature births due to exposure of pregnant women to high temperatures is confirmed by another recent long-term study conducted in Australia, which involved 1.2 million births (including 63,144 premature births) that took place in Sydney. This twenty-year study conducted by Monash University researchers and published in JAMA Pediatrics showed a strong link between exposure to extreme heat during the third trimester of pregnancy and preterm birth.

However, based on the findings, the risk of premature birth decreases as the green area increases in the area where the pregnant woman lives. As the head of the study, professor at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Sandy Lee, said in a relevant press release, “The presence of greenery and especially trees can moderate heat levels and reduce the risk of premature births associated with extreme heat. Strategies to limit extreme temperatures such as increasing green spaces in urban environments need to be adopted in order to improve public health.”

According to lead study author Professor Yuming Guo, also from Monash University, high temperatures at night appeared to have a particularly negative effect on pregnancy. “Heat at night can disrupt the circadian rhythm and affect blood pressure, which is especially important for pregnant women. Given the predicted further rise in temperature on our planet, understanding extreme heat in pregnancy is a critical issue.”