Doctors at Vancouver conference called to action over health effects of climate change

Vancouver — Climate change is the greatest global health threat of the 21st century, one of Canada’s leading advocates on the subject, Dr. James Orbinski, told physicians attending the Canadian Medical Association annual meeting Monday, urging them to do more to lessen harms.

Orbinski, a humanitarian and founding member of the Nobel-Prize winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), said climate change is unrelenting as evidenced by the fact that 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history and 2016 is projected to surpass it.

“We’re not separate from our biosphere, or our planet … we can’t possibly live, survive and thrive without our biosphere. It affects us and we affect it,” Orbinski, a 2016/17 Fulbright visiting professor (University of California-Irvine), told 600 delegates and observers at the meeting in Vancouver.

Dr. James Orbinski says doctors have a vital responsibility to urge the development of a health-in-all-policies approach. DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Orbinski urged doctors to “step up and step out” on local and national levels so that climate change causes like burning coal and reliance on fossil fuels are considered in all government agendas.

“Climate change is very much of our own making … but as doctors, we have a vital responsibility to urge the development of a health-in-all-policies approach,” he said.

Droughts, fires like the one in Fort McMurray in May, floods, food security and infectious diseases are all linked to climate change.

Mental health problems and respiratory ailments from air pollution as well as rising rates of infectious diseases like West Nile virus and Lyme disease are also some of the consequences of climate change.

Orbinski said Canada’s average annual rate of warming, especially in the north, is twice the global rate which means the loss of permafrost, expedited Arctic ice melting, rising sea levels, and more forest fires. 

From Health Consequences of Climate Change by Dr James Orbinski. VANCOUVER SUN

“The implications are utterly profound,” Orbinski said, noting that the Athabasca Glacier is expected to disappear within a generation.

He said within Canada every year, there are 21,000 premature deaths related to climate change, as well as 92,000 emergency department visits and 620,000 visits to doctors offices. Immune disorders, severe sunburns, skin cancers, cataracts and other vision damage are directly related to the shrinking ozone layer, he said.

Canada has thus far “missed the boat” on research and development of renewable energy sources, he said, noting the irony that China has done more to set priorities than Canada. But in an interview, he praised the federal government in Ottawa for seeming to be “more forward thinking” than the last Conservative government.

Orbinski drew a depressing, catastrophic picture for doctors to get their attention. 

“People go to war over water, food and territory,” he said, “and when you cannot feed your children, you will do anything, even if it means going to war. This is the reality of climate change.”

Dr. Cindy Forbes, CMA president, said the organization’s board of directors will now determine what the next steps will be.

“I appreciated greatly Dr. Orbinski’s call to action, and I agree as a nation and as a planet we cannot ignore climate change,” she said. The CMA issued a call to action by governments in 2010 when it released its Climate Change and Human Health policy. It remains to be seen what more it can or will do.

Doctors also heard from B.C. health minister Terry Lake Monday when he welcomed them to the province, which he said spends $20 billion a year on health care, 45 per cent of total government spending.

Lake said B.C. has many challenges, one of which is that 15 per cent of the population is over age 65 and that proportion is expected to double over the next 20 years. The other problem has to do with the perennial shortage of family doctors. Twenty per cent of family doctors say they will retire in the next four years, according to a survey he cited by Doctors of B.C.

Lake said the government is committed to ensuring patients are more involved in their health care decisions. He mentioned Shuswap Lake General Hospital in Salmon Arm, where patients can get their lab tests and diagnostic imaging online.

“I firmly believe patients need to be more active in their care and their medical records should be theirs, not the clinics, the health authorities or the province’s. Patients can do their banking, shopping and dating online,” Lake said, while pointing out that the vast majority of health care records are not accessible by patients online.

On Tuesday, doctors will hear from federal health minister Jane Philpott, who is expected to discuss negotiations towards a new health accord between the feds and the provinces. The CMA is pressing for more money for provinces like B.C. that have greater proportions of seniors since health care costs related to doctor visits, hospitalization, prescription drugs, home care and long term care rise with age.  

During the meeting this week, Forbes will turn the reins over to BC’s Dr. Granger Avery who is just the 13th president to hail from the province in the organization’s 149-year history.

To read more about Orbinski’s talk, go to cma.ca.