Climate CHIP Publications

The effects of extreme heat on human mortality and morbidity in Australia: implications for public health

Authors: 
Bi P, Williams S, Loughnan M, Lloyd G, Hansen A, Kjellstrom T, Dear KM, Saniotis A
Year: 
2010

Most regions of Australia are exposed to hot summers and regular extreme heat events; and numerous studies have associated high ambient temperatures with adverse health outcomes in Australian cities. Extreme environmental heat can trigger the onset of acute conditions, including heat stroke and dehydration, as well as exacerbate a range of underlying illnesses.

Regional maps of occupational heat exposure: past, present and potential future

Authors: 
Hyatt O, Lemke B, Kjellstrom T.
Year: 
2010

Background: An important feature of climate change is increasing human heat exposure in workplaces without cooling systems in tropical and subtropical countries. Detailed gridded heat exposure maps will provide essential information for public health authorities. Objectives: To develop and test methods for calculating occupational heat exposures and present results in easily interpreted maps.

Heat impact on school children in Cameroon, Africa: potential health threat from climate change

Authors: 
Dapi LN, Rocklov J, Nguefack-Tsague G, Tetanye E, Kjellstrom T.
Year: 
2010

Background: Health impacts related to climate change are potentially an increasing problem in Cameroon, especially during hot seasons when there are no means for protective and adaptive actions. Objective: To describe environmental conditions in schools and to evaluate the impact of heat on schoolchildren's health during school days in the Cameroon cities of Yaoundé and Douala. Methods: Schoolchildren (N=285) aged 12–16 years from public secondary schools completed a questionnaire about their background, general symptoms, and hot feelings in a cross-sectional study.

Climate change impacts on working people: how to develop prevention policies

Authors: 
Nilsson M, Kjellstrom T.
Year: 
2010

The evidence on negative consequences from climate change on human health and well-being is growing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described climate change as a threat to the climate system that sets the basis for life and human health conditions. The changing climate is expected to affect basic requirements needed to support and sustain human health such as good food, clean water, and unpolluted air, with negative effects that are expected to be unequally distributed.

Book Chapter - Global situation concerning work-related injuries and diseases.

Authors: 
Kjellstrom T and Hogstedt C In: Elgstrand K and Pettersson I. Eds.
Year: 
2009

the official picture Work related injuries and diseases come in many different forms and are often difficult to record, because other causal or risk factors than work are also involved. A worker injured by machinery inside a factory will clearly be classified as an occupational injury, but what if the worker was injured in a car crash driving between two worksites during working hours? It is likely that this will be classified as a traffic injury rather than as an occupational injury. Similarly, if an insulation worker who smokes develops lung cancer or

Book Chapter - Air pollution interacts with Climate Change – consequences for human health

Authors: 
Pershagen G, Kjellstrom T, Bellander T. (2009) . In: Pleijel H Ed.
Year: 
2009

Air pollution and climate change are often treated as if they were two separate problems, when they actually represent the same scourge. While the former has the most acute impact on human health, and causes economic harm to buildings, vegetation and activities such as tourism, the latter affects lives, property and the natural world in a less direct way, through weather disasters, windstroms, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

The 'Hothaps' programme for assessing climate change impacts on occupational health and productivity: an invitation to carry out field studies

Authors: 
Kjellstrom T, Gabrysch S, Lemke B, & Dear K
Year: 
2009

The ‘high occupational temperature health and productivity suppression’ programme (Hothaps) is a multicentre health research and prevention programme aimed at quantifying the extent to which working people are affected by, or adapt to, heat exposure while working, and how global heating during climate change may increase such effects. The programme will produce essential new evidence for local, national and global assessment of negative impacts of climate change that have largely been overlooked.