Ten principles for climate, environment and respiratory health

While not a meteorological fact, it is nonetheless commonly believed that every cloud has a silver lining. It seems they may also have a developed sense of irony as within days of announcing plans to pull the United States out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement, President Trump moved to show his climate credentials by proposing to cover his Mexican border wall with solar panels. Despite such changes, The Lancet has noted that the response to the cloud of climate change could offer "...the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century..." [1]. After all, while environmental and public health professionals are sensitised to the link between climate and health, key decisions on the necessary policy shifts in energy or transport are made elsewhere. These decisions must take health considerations into account [2] and health professionals have a key role to play in ensuring this connection between climate, environment and health. In such a complex space it can be difficult to see which position health professionals should take. In response to this question and, in particular, in support of the Marrakesh Ministerial Declaration on Health, Environment and Climate Change, a working group of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Environment and Health Committee (EHC) has proposed ten principles for climate, environment and respiratory health. This editorial outlines these principles, which are as follows:

from # All Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via alkiviadis.1961 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2AiQiE0