Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb 8;12(1):100226.
doi: 10.1016/j.fhj.2025.100226. eCollection 2025 Mar.

From 'Airs, Waters, and Places' to a warming world: Chronic illness, social inequities and the climate crisis

Mrinalini Dey  1
Affiliations

From 'Airs, Waters, and Places' to a warming world: Chronic illness, social inequities and the climate crisis

Mrinalini Dey. Future Healthc J. .

Abstract

The 2024 Teale Essay Prize invited resident or specialty and associate specialist doctors to consider how climate change affects healthcare, and the role of the physician. This theme aligns with the Royal College of Physicians' commitment to sustainable healthcare. The link between climate and health is not new - Hippocrates described this relationship nearly 2,500 years ago. More recently, catastrophic events, including crop failures due to extreme weather and the spread of diseases, have been attributed to climate change. These events can impact health directly, eg through trauma and infections, and indirectly, through rising rates of cardiovascular, respiratory, and mental health illnesses and other long-term conditions. Here, I reflect on my winning essay, from the perspective of a trainee rheumatologist with an academic interest in social determinants of health. This article examines the global health challenges resulting from climate change, and considers how physicians can practice more sustainably.

Keywords: Chronic disease; Climate change; Communicable diseases; Global warming; Non-communicable diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

    1. Hippocrates On airs, waters, and places. https://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/airwatpl.html
    1. Climate Change: World Health Organisation; 2023. Accessed December 18, 2024. [updated October 12, 2023]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health.
    1. Green Physician Toolkit. Royal College of Physicians; 2024. https://www.rcp.ac.uk/media/tmqazjjl/green-physician-toolkit-july-2024.pdf
    1. Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: State of the Evidence 2023 . gov.uk. Report No.: GOV-14571; 2023. UK Health Security Agency.
    1. Romanello M, Napoli CD, Green C, Kennard H, Lampard P, Scamman D, et al. The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms. The Lancet. 2023;402(10419):2346–2394. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources