Climate Change Impact on Health : Allergic Disease in Washington, DC USA

I have alluded to the excellent Sustainable DC Plan and have been planning to post about it, and then realized I hadn’t put this up yet. It’s my first assignment from the course I took on navigating climate change conversations (that I highly recommend, it’s free – see: Finished my 3rd MOOC, and moving to renewable Energy in Washington, DC | Ted Eytan, MD).

Climate change-mediated effects on the environment in may worsen the burden allergies in the Washington, DC, area, with significant health and economic impact, and amplifying feedbacks in the form of pharmaceutical use.

Climate change and Allergy in Washington, DC USA from Ted Eytan, MD, MS, MPH

The thing about allergy disease as it relates to climate change is that:

  • The only way to mitigate the health and economic damage that comes from allergy exposure it to stop climate change – it’s not an air quality issue, it’s an issue of the way plants behave
  • The health and economic damage to a working population is significant, a lot more than asthma, more than cancer, more than diabetes, less than hypertension, less than heart disease, less than hypertension – check out the chart within the document above.

I included my personal allergy story in the assignment – no data without stories, no stories without data 🙂

Enjoy, comments welcome – Feel free to check out the Sustainable DC Plan in the meantime.

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Ted Eytan, MD