EPIDEMIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON MEXICANS’ HEALTH

Introduction: Climate change is an increasing threat to human health worldwide. These global changes will lead eventually to excessive heat-related illnesses, vector and waterborne diseases, increased exposure to environmental toxins, exacerbation of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases due to declining air quality, and mental health stress among others. Furthermore, climate change would also impact the network setting worsening the workers’ health. Mexico City is a polluted area where geographic characteristics favor the atmospheric concentration of harmful pollutants and greenhouse gases, which impacts not only human health and ecosystems, but also the climate at local and global scale. During the last decade Mexico City has experienced an increase in temperature and atypical pluvial precipitation as well as the frequency of heat waves.    

Objective: The aim of this work is to evaluate the potential impacts of Climate Change on Mexicans’ health and to identify the type of work that could be at highest risk of suffering from these Climate Change impacts.    

Methods: Data bases of health events and deaths occurring in Mexico City between 2000 and 2010 will be obtained from Secretaría de Salud and Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática. Meteorological data will be obtained from the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. The relationship between health and death data, and meteorological parameters will be modeled using a time series analysis with Poisson´s regression.    

Results: The associations between daily maximum temperature, PM10 and O3 concentrations and all-cause mortality, as well as respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases will be presented. Results will be discussed in relation to the major employment sectors.    

Conclusion: The results of this study should permit to strengthen the programs already initiated by the Mexican Government and to develop new health public policies for prevention and control for the most disadvantaged populations.