Public health response to extreme weather and climate events working paper of the 4th ministerial conference for environment an health, Budapest, June 2004

Abstract

Severe floods, windstorms, heat-waves and cold-waves have caused dramatic political, social, environmental and health consequences in Europe over the past few years. In response to these events, ministries of health and other public health authorities, along with national and international meteorological services and organizations, are focusing increased attention on developing appropriate strategies and measures to prevent health effects from extreme weather and climate events in the future. Efforts are being made to understand the lessons learnt from recent events, to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken and early warning systems in place, and to use the knowledge gained to target future activities. The recent events have also increased interest in whether the intensity and frequency of future extreme weather and climate events could be expected to change as one result of a changing climate. With this in mind, a working group organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) has made the following recommendations. 1. The political, social, environmental and health consequences of extreme weather events have increased in Europe in recent years. We recognize that the climate is already changing, and that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as floods, heat-waves and cold-waves, may change in the future. These events will continue to pose additional challenges to current and future populations, in terms of health risk management and the reliability of infrastructure, including health services, power supply and others. 2. There is a need for ministries of health and other ministries to recognize that actions must be taken to reduce the current and future burden of disease due to extreme weather and climate events and to include the prevention of health effects due to weather and climate extremes among national health priorities. 3. We urge ministries of health and other ministries, as well as research institutions, to improve our understanding of the regional and national burden of disease due to weather and climate extremes and to identify effective and efficient interventions, such as early warning systems, surveillance mechanisms and crisis management. 4. We urge effective and timely coordination and collaboration among public health authorities, meteorological services and agencies (national and international), emergency response agencies and civil society in developing local, regional and national monitoring and surveillance systems for the rapid detection of extreme weather events and their effects on public health; developing civil emergency and intervention plans, including activities to prevent morbidity and mortality due to weather and climate extremes; and improving public awareness of extreme weather events, including actions that can be taken at individual, local, national and international levels to reduce impacts. 5. We call on WHO, through its European Centre for Environment and Health, in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization, the European Commission, EEA and other relevant organizations, to support these commitments and to coordinate international activities to this end. In particular, there is a need to develop guidelines for estimating the burden of disease due to weather and climate extremes; to develop indicators for intercountry and intracountry comparison and monitoring of progress; to coordinate the development of new methods, including sentinel monitoring and surveillance systems, to provide timely information on the health impacts of weather and climate extremes at the European level; to develop and evaluate more effective and efficient interventions, such as early warning systems, to reduce negative impacts; and to harmonize interventions across regions and countries to facilitate the sharing of data and lessons learnt. © 2005 World Health Organization.