ABSTRACT
Introduction There is now a strong global scientific consensus that the climate is changing and that if current trends of global warming continue, rising temperatures and sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events (heat -waves, storms, floods, droughts, cyclones, etc.) could lead to severe shortages of food and water, loss of shelter and livelihoods, and extinction of plant and animal species.1 Projected trends in climate -change-related exposures of importance to human health in urban environments are likely to: • increase heat -wave related health impacts; • increase flood -related health impacts; • change food-borne disease patterns; • change the distribution of infectious diseases; • increase the burden of waterborne diseases, in populations where water, sanitation, and personal hygiene standards are already low, and • increase the frequency of respiratory diseases due to higher concentrations of ground-level ozone in urban areas and changes in pollen distribution related to climate change.
