Vermont public health association

The Vermont Public Health Association (VtPHA) recognizes the connection between climate change and human health. There is clear evidence that Vermont’s climate has been changing during the last 50 years; mean winter temperatures have risen 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and mean summer temperatures have risen 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Anticipated changes also include earlier snow melt and heavier summer rains. Warming will occur through the next century even with significant reductions in new emissions.

Continued climate change will have serious ramifications for human health. The health effects of climate change are likely to be negative, impacting social and environmental determinants of health including clean air, safe drinking water, housing, employment, and transportation. Key climate-related health risks that may affect our region include increased heat-related morbidity and mortality, increased allergic sensitization, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular illness, increased occurrence of water-borne and food-borne illness, and increased transmission of insect-borne diseases such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis, West Nile virus, and Lyme Disease.

The public health and health care systems will be central to the response to any climate-related disaster. In light of these risks, VtPHA supports:

• Efforts to reduce the causes of climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. While primary prevention efforts will occur mainly outside of the public health sector, a broad public health approach that emphasizes health benefits may provide support for various climate change mitigation strategies
• Surveillance and monitoring of illnesses that are anticipated to increase in prevalence due to climate change
• Public health and health care initiatives intended to minimize the effects of diseases or injuries such as treatment of extreme heat-related conditions and vector-borne diseases
• Careful consideration of the unique health burden due to climate change for vulnerable populations such children, elderly, the poor, those with underlying chronic diseases, and mental health issues and the needs of those displaced by extreme weather events, food insecurity, or water shortages (climate refugees)
• Efforts aimed at educating policymakers and the public about the relationship between climate change and health and the steps that can be taken to decrease health risks associated with climate change
• Development of local communities’ capacity to use local knowledge to prepare for and adapt to climate change impacts and the increased risk of extreme weather events
• Sustained investment in coordinated statewide adaptation planning and emergency preparedness that explicitly considers the public health costs and benefits of adaptation actions in the transportation, energy, building, and agricultural sectors
• Involvement of public health officials in climate change adaptation and mitigation planning