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Threats to human health from climate change

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Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Is climate change the biggest global health threat of the 21st century?

A world expert in human health and climate change will address this issue in the annual Florey Lecture at the 成人大片 this month.

Organised by the , the free public lecture will be given on Monday 21 September by (MBBS, PhD).

"On current form we are moving towards a more precarious and health-unfriendly world. The scale, context and moral dimension of the risks to health are unfamiliar to humankind," says Professor McMichael, who is an at the , and also at the .

"We can itemise the diverse health risks from climate change - such as heatwaves, infectious diseases, impaired food yields, freshwater shortages, weather disasters, and others - but this may not convey an understanding of their real 'bottom line' significance."

Professor McMichael says human health is a key issue for environmental sustainability, but "western societies have largely lost sight of the absolute dependence of our health on nature's systems".

"2009 is a crucial year for initiating post-Kyoto policies. Many aspects of our ways of living and our international politics will soon be transformed - in either benign or malignant form. To achieve the former, a great responsibility sits on the health sector at large," he says.

Professor McMichael's research has spanned dietary, social and environmental epidemiology. In South Australia, he coordinated a long-running study (1979-1994) of environmental lead exposure and early child neurocognitive development in Port Pirie. During the 1990s he helped pioneer the study of health risks from global environmental change, especially climate change.

WHAT: 2009 Florey Lecture: Climate Change and Health, Present and Future Risks: A Core Issue for 'Sustainability' by Professor Anthony J McMichael
WHERE: Florey Lecture Theatre, Medical School North, 成人大片, Frome Road, Adelaide
WHEN: 5.30pm - 6.30pm Monday 21 September
COST: Free - all welcome

Email kerry.house@adelaide.edu.au or call +61 8 8303 3995

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