Climate Change Emerges as India’s Health Emergency
Hyderabad: Former ICMR director and public health expert Dr Soumya Swaminathan said on Wednesday that climate change is no longer a distant threat but a public health emergency today, especially for countries like India. 13th Dr. Dr. organized by Telangana Academy of Sciences. Delivering the VN Shirodkar Memorial Lecture, Manohar outlined the urgent steps needed to create a heat and climate resilient healthcare system.
Dr Swaminathan urged rapidly expanding cities like Hyderabad to adopt climate-resilient building methods. “We are building more metro lines and that is a positive development, but unless we significantly increase electric vehicles and rethink urban design, the health impacts of climate change will continue to increase,” he said. Calling for a Heat Resilient Healthcare System for India, he suggested integrating heat preparedness into primary healthcare, establishing cold rooms in healthcare facilities, redesigning clinical protocols to prevent misdiagnosis of heat-related diseases, and training healthcare workers at all levels to respond to climate risks.
He said heat tolerance should be mainstreamed into national programs covering maternal health, non-communicable diseases and vector-borne diseases. Dr Swaminathan emphasized that climate action must be gender transformative and community focused. “Climate action requires 100 percent participation. Women’s empowerment leads to better climate solutions,” she said, citing UN data showing that equal access to resources can increase women’s agricultural productivity by up to 30 percent and significantly reduce hunger. She added that indigenous women have valuable ecological knowledge that is vital for conservation.
Presenting the data, Dr Swaminathan said more than 57 per cent of districts in India face the risk of high to very high heat and urban areas could be 5°C to 10°C warmer than surrounding areas due to the urban heat island effect. Rising night temperatures are particularly dangerous because they prevent the body from recovering from daytime heat stress. Global heat-related deaths now exceed 5.5 lakh annually and this figure is likely an underestimate, he said.
He noted that air pollution remains the biggest environmental threat to human health, contributing to approximately seven million premature deaths each year. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) penetrates vital organs and is linked to heart disease, stroke, cancer and dementia. “Every 10 microgram reduction in PM2.5 could reduce all-cause deaths by 8.6 percent,” he said. To achieve acceptable air quality within five years, Dr Swaminathan called for replacing the National Clean Air Program with a stronger, science-led National Clean Air Mission, expanding the focus beyond cities to all air basins, and prioritizing clean fuels, stringent emissions enforcement, better public transport, dust control, greening of cities and stronger pollution control boards.
Drawing a parallel with the Covid-19 epidemic, he said that global crises require global solutions. “Science, solution and solidarity are essential. Science can only solve these problems by sharing knowledge and benefits fairly,” he said.
