Global climate change and health -- a new theme for research in environmental medicine.

Foreword This report is the result of an assignment that the Swedish Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) gave Professor Tord Kjellstrom towards the end of 2008. The task was to assemble in a broad manner the knowledge available concerning health effects of the global climate change and the research questions that are of importance for future research in Sweden concerning these health effects. The report is part of the Institute´s efforts to develop a strategy for its engagement regarding climate and health. According to the contract the report should be based on and clearly refer to ongoing Swedish activities including the Climate policy development, the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Investigations by the Swedish government. The focus should be on concrete proposals for environmental medicine research themes and questions, considering that the Swedish research funding council is a recipient of the report. The work was carried out in communication with staff at IMM, and advice and comments on the report outline and content was provided by Marika Berglund, Göran Pershagen, Gunnar Johanson and Monica Nordberg. The English text was edited by Adrienne Taylor. The author is solely responsible for the contents of the report and the views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.