Letter to CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding on climate change impacts on health

December 3, 2007

Julie Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333

Dear Dr. Gerberding:

The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is examining the threat to human health posed by climate change.  Since the health impacts of climate change were initially discussed in the First Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1992, this important issue has received increasing attention.  

As I am sure you are aware, there is a broad consensus among experts within the worldwide public health community that climate change is indeed a serious public health concern.  In its most recent report, the IPCC stated with very high confidence that “Climate change currently contributes to the global burden of disease and premature deaths.”  It also projects that the negative health effects will progressively increase in all countries and regions.  In addition, a quantitative assessment from the World Health Organization (WHO), “taking into account only a subset of the possible health impacts, concluded that the effects of the climate change that has occurred since the mid-1970s may have caused over 150,000 deaths” and 5,500,000 years of life lost due to premature mortality in 2000.  The WHO and the IPCC have concluded that these impacts are likely to increase in the future.

To maintain the credibility of the United States in world public health forums, it is critical that our nation’s leading public health officials not be perceived to depart from scientific fact for the sake of political expedience.  Therefore, I note with concern that many statements regarding the specific impacts of climate change on public health were removed from your final testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in October of this year.  In order to clarify the CDC’s position regarding climate change impacts on public health, we are requesting a prompt response as to whether the CDC agrees with the following peer-reviewed scientific conclusions from the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report:

1. Warming of the global climate system is unequivocal. This increase is highly likely (over 90% probability) to be due to human activity.
2. Climate change currently contributes to the global burden of disease and premature deaths.  The        health effects of climate change are predicted to increase in all countries and regions.
3. Hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have become more frequent.  Heatwaves are associated with marked short-term increases in mortality.  The observed higher frequency of heatwaves is likely to have occurred due to human influence on the climate system.
4. It is likely that climate change will increase the areas affected by droughts, tropical cyclone activity, and extreme high sea levels.  These extreme weather events pose a threat to human health.
5. With high confidence the IPCC concluded climate-change related exposure will:
   1. Increase the number of people suffering from death, disease and injury from heatwaves, floods, storms, fires and droughts.
   2. Increase cardio-respiratory morbidity and mortality associated with ground-level ozone.
   3. Continue to change the range of some infectious disease vectors.
   4. Increase malnutrition and consequent disorders, including those relative to child growth and development.
      
6. In the United States an association has been shown between extreme rainfall events and monthly reports of outbreaks of water-borne disease.  After Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005 water supplies contaminated with faecal bacteria led to many cases of diarrhoeal illness and some deaths.
7. Climate change has caused an earlier onset of the spring pollen season in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is reasonable to conclude that allergenic diseases caused by pollen have experienced some concomitant change in seasonality.  
   

In addition, to further clarify the CDC’s stance on climate change, please answer this question:  Do you agree or disagree with the statement that “CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern”?

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please respond to the questions above before December 21st.  If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Herring or David Moulton at 202-225-4012.

Sincerely,



Edward J. Markey
Chair, Select Committee on Energy Independence
and Global Warming

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