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ADVANCE Outlook: Lab Professionals

The Global Warming Debate

Published November 21, 2007 9:00 AM by Amanda Koehler

When I started working for ADVANCE, one of my first story assignments was to write about global warming and its effect on deforestation and parasitology. I was excited for this assignment because the topic had always interested me and I wanted to learn more.

Besides learning how certain diseases such as malaria could make appearances in the U.S. as a result of the phenomenon, I also realized through writing this article how people are divided on this issue. After telling friends and family about what I was working on, some of them enthusiastically said how more people need to learn about the consequences of what we are doing to our environment, while others told me it's just a big hoax concocted by our government.

I was even more surprised to see how split laboratorians are on the issue. In an ADVANCE Opinion Poll asking, "Do you think global warming will impact the clinical lab profession?," 44 percent of respondents said laboratorians will see increased incidence of disease, while another 44 percent said we will not see any changes and global warming is overrated. Thirteen percent said global warming might impact healthcare in some way.

For those of you who think global warming is overrated, what leads you to believe that? And for people who think we will see more infectious diseases as a result of global warming, what facts do you rely on to back up your opinion?

posted by Amanda Koehler
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1 comments
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There really are two sides to this story.  Many respected international scientists are predicting increased incidence of diseases, especially infectious diseases,  as global warming changes the environment. It does make sense that changed climatic conditions and environmental changes such as deforestation, and an imbalance in flora and fauna might well cause the distribution and balance of microbes to shift.

Like most topical issues, however, global warming can become just another excuse for communal "mea culpas" and dismal predictions. We should not forget that in addition to climate, other factors like vaccinations, sanitation, malnutrition -even poverty and the like- play a huge role in the spread of diseases. We forget that diseases like malaria  and polio were once almost endemic in the US until concerted public health intervention eradicated them.

Our knowledge of disease progression, public health capabilities and the will to address social ills might not stave off all diseases, but will certainly mitigate any increases dues to global warming-or any other factor. Failure to address socio-economic disparities is right up there with global warming as a risk factor for disease spread.

By the way, quite apart from a fear of increased disease risk, there are lots of other good reasons to do our individual part to slow global warming.
Glen McDaniel November 22, 2007 12:14 PM

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