sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
<headline>Global warming to impact health</headline>
<byline>Paul Bibby</byline> | <date>January 16, 2008 - 4:17AM
</date>
Rises in temperature produced by global warming could result in an increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital with kidney disease, heart disease and mental illness in Australian cities, a new study has found.
The study, by a team of academics and senior health professionals from across the country, compared the number of hospital admissions, ambulance trips and the deaths in Adelaide during heat waves, with those in normal weather conditions.
The heat waves - defined as a periods of three days or more in which the average temperature exceeded 35 degrees - produced a seven per cent increase in admissions to hospital and a four per cent increase in ambulance trips.
The number of people admitted for kidney disease increased by 17 per cent, and the number admitted for mental illness increased by seven per cent.
One of the researchers, Professor Kevin Parton from Charles Sturt University, said the study had the potential to assist Australia's health service's in planning for the future impacts of global warming.
"The kind of effects we saw in Adelaide would be broadly generalisable to other cities throughout Australia," Professor Parton said.
"As the planet warms, we will see more of these heatwave events and the health effects that come with them."
Professor Parton said that global warming might also bring a significant increase in previously uncommon diseases such as Dengue and Ross River fever to Australia's rural communities, where temperature increases were expected to be more dramatic.
"As 'vectors' that support and carry diseases, such as air, water, and organic movement, shift in response to climate change, so too will health problems," Professor Parton said.
"We could see both a worsening of existing diseases as well as the spread of diseases usually associated with warmer regions, such as Ross River and Barmah Forest viral infections, to more temperate zones."
"This research will assist the health services in planning ahead for the increase in demand that - sooner or later - they will be facing."
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/new...o-impact-health/2008/01/15/1200159445412.html
<byline>Paul Bibby</byline> | <date>January 16, 2008 - 4:17AM
</date>
Rises in temperature produced by global warming could result in an increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital with kidney disease, heart disease and mental illness in Australian cities, a new study has found.
The study, by a team of academics and senior health professionals from across the country, compared the number of hospital admissions, ambulance trips and the deaths in Adelaide during heat waves, with those in normal weather conditions.
The heat waves - defined as a periods of three days or more in which the average temperature exceeded 35 degrees - produced a seven per cent increase in admissions to hospital and a four per cent increase in ambulance trips.
The number of people admitted for kidney disease increased by 17 per cent, and the number admitted for mental illness increased by seven per cent.
One of the researchers, Professor Kevin Parton from Charles Sturt University, said the study had the potential to assist Australia's health service's in planning for the future impacts of global warming.
"The kind of effects we saw in Adelaide would be broadly generalisable to other cities throughout Australia," Professor Parton said.
"As the planet warms, we will see more of these heatwave events and the health effects that come with them."
Professor Parton said that global warming might also bring a significant increase in previously uncommon diseases such as Dengue and Ross River fever to Australia's rural communities, where temperature increases were expected to be more dramatic.
"As 'vectors' that support and carry diseases, such as air, water, and organic movement, shift in response to climate change, so too will health problems," Professor Parton said.
"We could see both a worsening of existing diseases as well as the spread of diseases usually associated with warmer regions, such as Ross River and Barmah Forest viral infections, to more temperate zones."
"This research will assist the health services in planning ahead for the increase in demand that - sooner or later - they will be facing."
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/new...o-impact-health/2008/01/15/1200159445412.html
