"Climate Change" Should be Listed in Death Certificates, Says New Study

In light of behavioral changes the population expresses when they see great counts of infections and deaths from things like the current pandemic, there is a new push to have "Climate Change"  listed and recorded as a cause of death on death certificates.

(Photo : Tom Fisk)

Death Certificate

A study released in May in the Lancet : Planetary Health, says: "Death certification needs to be reformed, causes that are indirect should be reported, with all death certification prompting for external factors promoting death, and these death data must go together with large-scale environmental datasets so that impact assessments can be done."

 The study, available to the public, is also available online here. Inside the report whose title is, "Heat-related mortality: an urgent need to recognize and record," study authors made a suggestion that attention can be paid on a threat much greater than COVID-19, which they say is universal climate change.

One of the study authors, Dr. Hunter, wrote that they can make a diagnosis of disease like COVID-19, but they are less knowledgeable in environmental determinants such as hot weather or bushfire smoke.

Climate change is the one greatest health threat that human face all over the world even after we recover from coronavirus. Hunter joins Simon Quilty,  Philip Haywood, Thomas Longden, and Russell Gruen as the study authors.

Also Read: Climate Change: What Could Happen Once Earth's Tropical Rain Belt Shifts?

The Need For Death Certification to be Modernized 

The authors wrote: "Given the unforeseeable nature and universal scale of climatic and other environmental events, like the Australian heatwaves and bushfires of 2019-20, it is essential that systems designed to monitor national mortality correctly reflect the impact of large-scale environmental events." 

The authors added that climate change is a concern to a lot of people. But if the effect of extreme temperatures is not recorded, its entire impact can never be understood.

There is a need for Death certification to be modernized, causes that are indirect should be reported, with all death certification prompting for external factors promoting death, and these death data must be together with large-scale environmental datasets so that impact assessments can be done.

(Photo : Mike)

Climate Change  

Climate is mistaken for weather sometimes. But climate is not the same with weather due to the fact that it is measured over a long period of time, conversely, weather can change from day to day, or from year to year. The climate of a region includes rainfall averages and seasonal temperature, and wind patterns.

Different locations have different climates. A desert, for instance, is called an arid climate because during the year little water falls, as rain or snow. Other types of climate include temperate climates, which have warm summers and cooler winters, and tropical climates, which are hot and humid

Climate change is the long-term change in temperature and typical weather patterns in an area. Climate change could refer to a specific location or the planet as a whole. 

Related Article: Things You Do Everyday That Surprisingly Add to Climate Change-- Without You Knowing!

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