Heatwaves and wildfires suffocate our healthy start to life: time to assess impact and take action
Heatwaves and wildfires suffocate our healthy start to life: time to assess impact and take action
Adverse environmental exposures in utero and early childhood are known to programme long-term health. Climate change, by contributing to severe heatwaves, wildfires, and other natural disasters, is plausibly associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and an increase in the future burden of chronic diseases in both mothers and their babies. In this Personal View, we highlight the limitations of existing evidence, specifically on the effects of severe heatwave and wildfire events, and compounding syndemic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, on the short-term and long-term physical and mental health of pregnant women and their babies, taking into account the interactions with individual and community vulnerabilities. We highlight a need for an international, interdisciplinary collaborative effort to systematically study the effects of severe climate-related environmental crises on maternal and child health. This will enable informed changes to public health policy and clinical practice necessary to safeguard the health and wellbeing of current and future generations.
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Bansal, Amita
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Cherbuin, Nicolas
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Davis, Deborah L.
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Peek, Michael J.
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Wingett, Amanda
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Christensen, Bruce K.
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Carlisle, Hazel
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Broom, Margaret
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Schoenaker, Danielle A.J.M.
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Dahlstrom, Jane E.
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Phillips, Christine B.
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Vardoulakis, Sotiris
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Nanan, Ralph
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Nolan, Christopher J.
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7 August 2023
Bansal, Amita
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Cherbuin, Nicolas
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Davis, Deborah L.
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Peek, Michael J.
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Wingett, Amanda
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Christensen, Bruce K.
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Carlisle, Hazel
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Broom, Margaret
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Schoenaker, Danielle A.J.M.
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Dahlstrom, Jane E.
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Phillips, Christine B.
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Vardoulakis, Sotiris
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Nanan, Ralph
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Nolan, Christopher J.
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Bansal, Amita, Cherbuin, Nicolas, Davis, Deborah L., Peek, Michael J., Wingett, Amanda, Christensen, Bruce K., Carlisle, Hazel, Broom, Margaret, Schoenaker, Danielle A.J.M., Dahlstrom, Jane E., Phillips, Christine B., Vardoulakis, Sotiris, Nanan, Ralph and Nolan, Christopher J.
(2023)
Heatwaves and wildfires suffocate our healthy start to life: time to assess impact and take action.
The Lancet Planetary Health, 7 (8), .
(doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00134-1).
Abstract
Adverse environmental exposures in utero and early childhood are known to programme long-term health. Climate change, by contributing to severe heatwaves, wildfires, and other natural disasters, is plausibly associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and an increase in the future burden of chronic diseases in both mothers and their babies. In this Personal View, we highlight the limitations of existing evidence, specifically on the effects of severe heatwave and wildfire events, and compounding syndemic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, on the short-term and long-term physical and mental health of pregnant women and their babies, taking into account the interactions with individual and community vulnerabilities. We highlight a need for an international, interdisciplinary collaborative effort to systematically study the effects of severe climate-related environmental crises on maternal and child health. This will enable informed changes to public health policy and clinical practice necessary to safeguard the health and wellbeing of current and future generations.
Text
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 August 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 August 2023
Published date: 7 August 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank all members of the Mother and Child 2020 study team (MC2020team.anu.edu.au) for thoughtful discussions while preparing this manuscript. The Mother and Child 2020 study is supported by the Finley River fund and the Australian National University Fiji Alumni and a grant from the College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University. DAJMS is supported by the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (IS-BRC-1215–20004). SV, CBP, and CJN acknowledge the HEAL (Healthy Environments And Lives) National Research Network, which receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council Special Initiative in Human Health and Environmental Change (grant number 2008937).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 480969
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/480969
ISSN: 2542-5196
PURE UUID: a95f1cfa-5b71-47ca-9bd7-5599672966b0
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Date deposited: 11 Aug 2023 17:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:57
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Contributors
Author:
Amita Bansal
Author:
Nicolas Cherbuin
Author:
Deborah L. Davis
Author:
Michael J. Peek
Author:
Amanda Wingett
Author:
Bruce K. Christensen
Author:
Hazel Carlisle
Author:
Margaret Broom
Author:
Jane E. Dahlstrom
Author:
Christine B. Phillips
Author:
Sotiris Vardoulakis
Author:
Ralph Nanan
Author:
Christopher J. Nolan
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