Key Points
- Climate change has triggered more frequent weather disasters like hurricanes and wildfires that release deadly carcinogens into communities and delay access to cancer treatment.
- When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2018 it shut down several factories that provided live-saving IV fluid bags to U.S. hospitals, causing shortages in cancer facilities nationwide.
- “Climate change is not a future threat. It is impacting cancer outcomes today,” said Leticia Nogueira, a scientist at the American Cancer Society.
Climate change is hindering progress on cancer prevention and
increasing people’s exposure to deadly carcinogens, according to a new
report from scientists at the American Cancer Society and Harvard
University.
Hotter temperatures worldwide have fueled more
frequent weather disasters like hurricanes and wildfires that release
vast amounts of carcinogens into communities and delay access to cancer
treatment.
“The
prospects for further progress in cancer prevention and control in this
century are bright but face an easily overlooked threat from climate
change,” scientists wrote in a new report in the journal CA: A Cancer
Journal for Clinicians.
For instance, when Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, it caused catastrophic
flooding that inundated chemical plants and oil refineries and released deadly carcinogens into neighbourhoods in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.
The half-life of some of the carcinogens detected after Harvey is up to 50
years, researchers said. Some areas in Houston have experienced higher levels of childhood leukaemia driven by a high concentration of chemicals in the air.
Climate change has also triggered longer and more destructive wildfire seasons in the U.S., releasing pollutants that remain in the air for months after the flames dissipate.
In
2018, California experienced the deadliest and most
destructive wildfire season on record with a total of 8,527 blazes
burning nearly 2 million acres. The smoke traveled all the way to New
England, while air pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area was among the
worst levels in the world.
Extreme weather disasters also lower cancer survival rates. One study shows that cancer patients were 19% more likely to die
when hurricane declarations were made during their therapy because of
treatment interruptions compared with patients who had regular access to
care.
“For patients with cancer, the effects of hurricanes on
access to cancer care can mean the difference between life and death,”
the authors wrote.
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2018 it shut down several factories that provided live-saving IV fluid bags to U.S. hospitals, causing shortages in cancer facilities nationwide.
Cancer
is the No. 2 cause of death globally. Nearly 10 million people worldwide will die from cancer this year, according to researchers.
Some
cancer treatment centres have tried to adapt to climate threats by implementing plans to provide resilience to future flooding events.
Climate-change
mitigation efforts, in general, can benefit cancer prevention by lowering harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists urged interventions like increased use of renewable energy, sustainable manufacturing and reduced intake of red and processed meat.
“Climate change is not a
future threat. It is impacting cancer outcomes today and there are things we can do to respond,” said Leticia Nogueira, a scientist at the American Cancer Society and an author of the report.
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