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Trump's climate rollbacks could be causing a public health emergency

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Not peer-reviewed: This work has not been scrutinised by independent experts, or the story does not contain research data to review (for example an opinion piece). If you are reporting on research that has yet to go through peer-review (eg. conference abstracts and preprints) be aware that the findings can change during the peer review process.

Opinion piece/editorial: This work is based on the opinions of the author(s)/institution.

US researchers have submitted an opinion piece outlining how the rollback of government efforts to collect data on climate change will imperil public health efforts. The Trump administration has discontinued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Billion-Dollar Disasters Database; the Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality monitoring, heat index surveillance and collection of climate data related to disease; and The National Institutes of Health's funding for research into heat-related deaths, wildfire smoke exposure and how climate impacts the spread of infectious diseases, which the researchers say will have international effects and constitutes a public health emergency.

Journal/conference: PLOS Climate

Research: Paper

Organisation/s: Vanderbilt University, USA

Funder: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Media release

From: PLOS

Government rollbacks of climate monitoring is a public health emergency

Clinicians, researchers and public health experts must defend the importance of climate data

In an opinion piece published July 16 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate, Jeremy Jacobs of Vanderbilt University and Shazia Khan of Yale School of Medicine draw attention to the rollback of government efforts to collect data on climate change, and how the loss of this infrastructure imperils public health efforts.

Climate disasters like heatwaves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes can contribute to a range of health conditions, including heart disease, respiratory issues, disease outbreaks, mental health crises and traumatic injuries. The elimination of federal and state tools to monitor and forecast these events makes it much more difficult for public health systems to prepare appropriately and respond, with the most vulnerable populations – children, the elderly and people with chronic conditions – suffering the greatest impacts.

In their opinion piece, Jacobs and Khan point to the recent dismantling of multiple climate monitoring efforts. The Trump administration discontinued NOAA’s Billion-Dollar Disasters Database; the EPA’s air quality monitoring, heat index surveillance and collection of climate data related to disease; and NIH funding for research into heat-related deaths, wildfire smoke exposure and how climate impacts the spread of infectious diseases. They argue that this undermining of climate data will have international effects and constitutes a public health emergency.

Jacobs and Khan call on the scientific and medical communities to defend the integrity and visibility of climate data as foundational to public health. They urge scientific journal editors and funding agencies to support research related to climate and health, to emphasize transparency and not to bow to political pressure to censor correct terminology.

“To ignore climate data is to abandon public health in the face of its greatest modern challenge,” Jacobs said. “It is to walk into the next disaster with eyes wide shut.”

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