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Health And Climate Change

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by MedlinePlus Trusted Health — Information for You A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine from the National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of Health

Weather can be hot or cold, dry or wet, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Climate is the average weather in a place over a long period of time. Changes in climate may be due to natural forces or from human activities. Today climate changes are happening at an increasingly rapid rate.

Climate change is altering weather and climate patterns that previously have been relatively stable. Climate experts think that climate change will bring increasingly frequent and severe heat waves and extreme weather events, as well as a rise in sea levels. These changes have the potential to affect human health in direct and indirect ways.

* Climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.
* Global warming that has occurred since the 1970s caused over 140 000 excess deaths annually by the year 2004.
* The direct damage costs to health (i.e. excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between US$ 2-4 billion/year by 2030.
* Many of the major killers such as diarrhoeal diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen as the climate changes.
* Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.
* Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy-use choices can result in improved health.

Olive Oil

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New studies suggest that olive oil is an important part of your diet and may improve your quality of life; however, the making of olive oil is not that environmentally friendly.

The USDA says: For every gallon of olive oil that’s pressed from the ripe fruit, about 38 pounds of olive skins, pulp and pits are left behind. Known as pomace, these leftovers typically have low-value uses. But U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agricultural engineer Rebecca R. Milczarek and her colleagues are working with olive growers and olive-oil processors in California—where most of the nation’s commercial olives are grown—to find new, environmentally friendly, and profitable uses for pomace.

According to Milczarek, pomace from California mills is usually a wet, heavy goulash that ranges in color from green to brown to black to purple, and has an aroma somewhat like that of olive tapenade, a flavorful spread made of finely chopped or puréed olives, anchovies, capers, garlic and olive oil.

Milczarek notes that one key to creating higher-value uses for pomace is to develop techniques that millers can use to quickly and affordably dry it on-site. That would make the pomace lighter, and easier and less expensive to ship to, for example, a centralized processing plant. There, specialized equipment could be used to extract additional oil or perhaps compounds for use in new foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics or other products.

In her research, Milczarek is investigating the dynamics of drying pomace. The goal of these studies is to determine precisely how long it would take for water to diffuse from the pomace under specific conditions.

In preliminary experiments, documented in a 2011 peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Food Engineering, Milczarek’s team dried small batches of fresh pomace, using a combination of microwave and convection (hot forced air) heating. The drying rates for the four internal temperatures studied—104 degrees, 122 degrees, 140 degrees, and 158 degrees Fahrenheit—averaged about 28 percent lower than those reported in some studies conducted by other scientists.

The bottom line? Lower drying rates mean more drying time is needed in order for the pomace to dry sufficiently.

What can olive mills do about that? For commercial drying, pomace would be carried on a conveyor belt through a “drying tunnel.” With the drying rates in mind, the tunnel could be lengthened, or the conveyor belt could be slowed, to ensure that pomace emerging from the tunnel isn’t damp and prone to mold.

Of course, drying adds to mills’ energy costs. However, the combination of microwave and convection drying that Milczarek tested is inherently more energy-efficient than drying options that are based solely on convection, she points out.

Two features of Milczarek’s study—keeping the pomace’s internal temperature steady when testing each temperature regimen, and taking pomace shrinkage into account—likely made the research unique among olive-pomace-drying experiments and contributed to the accuracy of her results.

Milczarek is with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. ARS is the USDA’s chief intramural scientific research agency.

How Sustainable Is Your Seafood?

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ImageCredit: Greenpeace, from “Carting Away the Oceans 2013” Report

Last week, Greenpeace USA released the seventh edition of their popular Carting Away the Oceans report, which ranks the sustainable seafood performance of the nation’s 20 largest supermarket chains. Industry leaders like Wegmans (a former EDF partner on salmon and shrimp sourcing), Whole Foods and Safeway once again scored in the top five, while Winn Dixie, Publix and Supervalu perennially find themselves at the bottom of the rankings.

This year’s report places extra emphasis on the ways that these companies approach pressing conservation policy issues, such as the approval of genetically-modified salmon, the advancement of industry-wide seafood traceability, and catch methods for canned tuna.

Perhaps the report’s biggest surprise was the improvement shown by prepared foods leader Trader Joe’s, which rocketed up 12 spots (from 15th in 2012 to 3rd this year). This comes just weeks after public scrutiny of the company’s follow-through on its 2012 sustainable seafood promise. However, Greenpeace gave Trader Joe’s a major pat on the back for removing several unsustainable species from their inventory and switching to better sources of canned tuna.

Although we don’t always agree with our Greenpeace colleagues about the composition of their ‘red list’, we were happy to see them recognize the improving sustainability of Gulf of Mexico red snapper and grouper – fisheries that EDF has worked in for more than a decade. They even gave a nod to EDF partner H-E-B for their strong support of the GulfWild traceability program.

So until next year’s edition, try to use your seafood dollars to support companies that are on the right track. If you are uncertain about the right species to purchase, you can refer to our recently revamped “Seafood Selector.” Let’s hope that the good continue to get better and the not-so-good get serious about seafood sustainability.

More On Our Environment

Nationwide Monsanto Protests

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UNITED STATES — Protests against Monsanto were held throughout the nation including several locations in the Delaware Valley. Consumers are concerned about their health and wellness of Monsanto. The pesticide Round Up is speculated to be behind the bee colony collapse, as well as, neurological disorders to humans.

The company’s attempt to create a monopoly over seeds through GMO patents was one of the crowds gravest concerns.

270,000 Pedestrians Killed on Roads

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According to the World Health Organization, pedestrians are among the most vulnerable road users, accounting for 22% of the total 1.24 million road traffic deaths each year. The Second United Nations Global Road Safety Week (6–12 May) kicks off worldwide under the banner “Make Walking Safe”, to draw attention to the needs of pedestrians. WHO is calling on governments to take concrete actions to improve the safety of pedestrians.

There are many steps which can be taken to protect pedestrians on the roads. The newly released Pedestrian safety: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners, produced by WHO and partners, promotes a focus on combined enforcement, engineering and education measures, which include among others:

* adopting and enforcing new and existing laws to reduce speeding, curb drinking and driving, decrease mobile phone use and other forms of distracted driving;
* putting in place infrastructure which separates pedestrians from other traffic (sidewalks, raised crosswalks, overpasses, underpasses, refuge islands and raised medians), lowers vehicle speeds (speed bumps, rumble strips and chicanes) and improves roadway lighting;
* creating pedestrian zones in city centres by restricting vehicular access;
* improving mass transit route design;
* developing and enforcing vehicle design standards for pedestrian protection, including soft vehicle fronts;
* organizing and/or further enhancing trauma care systems to guarantee the prompt treatment of those with life-threatening injuries.

“The Second United Nations Global Road Safety Week offers an opportunity to highlight the myriad challenges that pedestrians face around the world each and every day,” notes WHO Assistant Director-General of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Dr Oleg Chestnov. “We are all pedestrians, and governments should put in place measures to better protect all of us. This will not only save lives, but create the conditions needed to make walking safe. When roads are safe, people will walk more, and this in turn will improve health and protect the environment.”

Pedestrians are among the most vulnerable road users. Studies indicate that males, both children and adults, make up a high proportion of pedestrian deaths and injuries. In developed countries, older pedestrians are more at risk, while in low-income and middle-income countries, children and young adults are often affected. Both children and adults with disabilities suffer higher rates of injury as pedestrians compared to their non-disabled peers.

The proportion of pedestrians killed in relation to other road users is highest in the African Region (38%) and lowest in the South-East Asia Region (12%). In some countries, the proportion of pedestrian fatalities can reach nearly two thirds of road traffic deaths, such as in El Salvador (62%) and Liberia (66%).

“More than 5000 pedestrians are killed on the world’s roads each week. This is because their needs have been neglected for decades, often in favor of motorized transport,” says Dr Etienne Krug, WHO Director of the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability. “We need to rethink the way we organize our transport systems to make walking safe and save pedestrian lives.”

About 1.24 million road traffic deaths occur annually on the world’s roads, making road traffic injuries the eighth leading cause of death globally, and the leading cause of death for young people aged 15–29 years. The Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, declared by the United Nations General Assembly, offers a broad framework for drawing attention to the need for greater safety on the roads. Launched in May 2011 by governments across the world, the Decade of Action seeks to build road safety management capacity in countries; improve the safety of roads and vehicles; enhance the behaviour of all road users; and strengthen post-crash care.

WHO supports road safety efforts generally by providing guidance to countries on five key risk factors: speeding, drinking and driving, and failing to use motorcycle helmets, seat-belts and child restraints; assisting efforts to improve data collection and trauma care; monitoring progress through global status reports; and serving as the secretariat for the Decade of Action.
For more information please contact:

Laura Sminkey
WHO Geneva
Telephone: +41 22 791 4547
Mobile: +41 79 249 3520
E-mail: sminkeyl@who.int