03/03/2022

(AU ABC) Doctors Say Climate Change Is Already Having Devastating Effects On Our Health

ABC 7.30 - Jess Davis

Jen Speers at home during her pregnancy while the air was filled with bushfire smoke. (Supplied: Spears family)
Key Points
  • The IPCC warns that health systems need to be strengthened to protect human health and wellbeing
  • Jen Spears had a baby after the Black Summer and her doctor said she had "the placenta of a heavy smoker"
  • Dr Michael Holland says he attributes three full-term still-births to poor air quality during the bushfires
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned to expect an increase in illness and premature deaths as the earth warms, but Australian doctors say they're seeing devastating health effects already.  Jen Spears lives in Tura Beach on the New South Wales south coast and was three months pregnant with her third child when the Black Summer bushfires hit, exposing her to smoke for five weeks.

"It was a very nervous time because we'd heard reports of babies that had trouble breathing or were born underweight," she said. 

"When they inspected the placenta, it was the placenta of a heavy smoker, which I'm not. I've never smoked a day in my life."

Her daughter Mia was born early but healthy, although it's unclear what the long-term health impacts for babies like her will be.

"You worry for her and her development, because when they're tiny babies, they can't tell you if something's wrong," Ms Spears said. 

Jen Spears was pregnant with her daughter Mia during the bushfires.(ABC News: Jess Davis)

"I don't know how to sit and be content and not worry when it's a hot day or the weather blows, or my daughter is sick for any reason."

Further up the NSW coast at Moruya, Dr Michael Holland saw more immediate and devastating impacts on his patients.  "Personally, I saw in that period of time, three full-term stillbirths," he said. 

Dr Michael Holland believes bushfire smoke had negative impacts on a number of pregnancies during the Black Summer. (ABC News: Jess Davis)

"Two out of those three, I believe can be directly attributed to the air quality at that time because they were direct placental abnormalities."

He believes around 15,000 births on the east coast of New South Wales have been exposed to conditions that could leave lasting consequences. 

"We know that the incidence of high blood pressure in pregnancy, gestational diabetes in pregnancy, low birth weight of babies and preterm birth are all increased by this air pollution," he said.

Never-ending cycle of disasters

A man trapped on his roof near Woodburn in northern NSW this week.

Once again, Australians are battling a natural disaster on a scale never seen before, as floods devastate large parts of the east coast. 

"This is a stark reminder of the impacts of climate change in our immediate vicinity here in Australia," Professor Kathryn Bowen, a lead author on the UN report, said. 

"Climate change is a threat to human health and wellbeing and the health of the planet. 
Scientists warn time to act
on climate change closing
"Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a really brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future."

While natural disasters bring imminent danger to people's lives, the IPCC report warns climate change will lead to increased deaths and illness from heat, malnutrition, malaria and gastro, as well as increasing threats to mental health.

"One thing that we're seeing now is what we're calling cascading and compounding impacts," Professor Bowen said. 

"For example, the Black Summer in Australia was preceded by severe droughts and then the summer fires were followed by floods in some places.

"These compounding and cascading impacts really affect individuals and society's ability to recover as often there's little time between the onset of these shocks." 

The report warns that heat in Australia will reach the limit of human survivability, with parts of northern Australia becoming uninhabitable and that rural communities will face increased stress.

Rural communities vulnerable

Debbie Wilmot says the drought and bushfires had an impact on her health. (ABC News: Jon Daly)

Debbie Wilmot owns a gift shop in Stanthorpe, Queensland, and has seen first hand the devastating impacts of drought on her community. 

"The drought was horrendous," she said.

"The heartbreaking stories that we got from our farmers and our locals, it just was gut wrenching."

Water had to be trucked into this town in southern Queensland for 18 months after it ran out of supply in 2018, before bushfires shrouded the town in smoke the following year after years of drought.

"I'm a chronic asthmatic and the dry and the dust and the smoke and the bushfires really had an impact on my health," Ms Wilmot said. 

"Being out in regional areas, you don't have access to a lot of health professionals."

Dr Dan Halliday says regional health services need more resources and funding. (ABC News: Jon Daly)

Stanthorpe doctor Dan Halliday said the extreme weather led to more people presenting to hospital due to a lack of water for sanitation and clean drinking water, as well as respiratory problems.

He wants to see regional and rural healthcare bolstered to cope with increasing acute and chronic illnesses.

"What we're seeing is that we're providing a just-in-time service for rural remote areas," Dr Halliday said. 

"Realistically, if we don't have the resourcing and funding to actually go into our rural and remote communities, who are going to be the most vulnerable in terms of climate change, we are going to see ongoing challenges going forward."

Strengthening health systems

Jen Spears says authorities need to do more to tackle climate change. (ABC News: Jess Davis)
The IPCC has warned health systems need to be strengthened to protect human health and wellbeing, and that a key risk for Australia is an "inability of institutions and governance systems to manage".

"There's a very large gap in our adaptation efforts to date. National Planning on a health and climate change is advancing," Professor Kathryn Bowen said.

"For example, the Victorian government released its health adaptation plan earlier this year, but implementing these plans is key and remains challenging.

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"We know that [climate change] will primarily affect the pre-existing diseases and morbidities that are in our community," Dr Holland said.

"If you have people who already have chronic respiratory or cardiac diseases, they will be the first affected. However, it also severely affects the areas with the least resources and that is our rural and remote areas."

In a statement, a spokesperson for federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government's Climate and Resilience Adaptation Strategy, released last year, includes health system considerations and is designed to support governments, communities and businesses to better adapt. 

The statement said climate change was a global challenge and all countries, including Australia, needed to take action.

But Jen Spears said authorities can't wait for more victims before they act. 

"You hope that maybe today will be the day that they take it seriously," she said.

"My daughter is maybe the first generation to be impacted in this country. 

"We need to start taking stock of what's important to us as Australians. If it's not the health and wellbeing of our most vulnerable, like our babies, our children, what's the point?"

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