I am a cardiologist specialist who has worked with seriously ill patients for 30 years. For me, it is urgent to treat the problem upstream and prevent it for real. The climate crisis should be addressed alongside exercise prevention, optimal blood pressure control, diabetes prevention and smoking cessation.
The climate emergency is a public health issue. It is essential to integrate it now into prevention for us and for our future generations.
We have all been hypnotized and numbed by COVID since March 2020. Our alertness to our planet earth has greatly diminished. We hardly talk about the problem that is the climate emergency. However, this problem is indeed present and continues to grow. Every effort is needed to mitigate this threat. Threat there is to health and heart. Global warming jeopardizes several already vulnerable patients, weakened by poor genetics and/or poor lifestyle.
A silent killer
Even before climate change hit us hard in Quebec, heart failure was on the rise due to the aging of the population. By 2021, the cost of heart failure was more than double the cost of all cancers combined. It is the costliest condition for our healthcare system.
More and more scientific press releases published and reviewed by peers are unequivocal: heat waves and poor air quality increase the risk of developing and/or worsening an existing heart condition. Today, global warming is a silent killer. When will we deign to hear it?
Global warming contributes significantly to urban pollution. The microparticles in suspension, caused by this pollution, have a very harmful effect on our arterial system and on our heart. There has been a significant increase in these microparticles for years and these are the subject of numerous symposia and scientific publications.
On this subject, there is no debate or questioning. It is unanimous: these particles are for patients with heart conditions. If we add high blood pressure and diabetes, nearly half of the population over 65 would suffer from heart disease.
Also, the increase in microparticles in the air, during periods of smog, has been clearly linked to heart attacks, sudden death and hospitalizations in patients with chronic heart and respiratory diseases. This situation makes our cities less and less habitable and is the cause of growing psycho-social stress.
As a cardiologist, I see that our clinics are full of heart patients, anxious in their daily lives and with a markedly diminished quality of life. Now, in the biggest international congresses, sessions on climate and health are part of all the agendas. How come climate is not on our governments’ health agenda? Are we up to it?
Why on May 8, I will walk with Mothers at the front?
Even though I am a childless man, I want future generations to be proud of us. I want us to surpass ourselves as a society. It is often too late to prevent the devastating effects of a poor living environment combined with multiple risk factors. Our healthcare system is barely managing to keep its head above water. We must raise awareness, move and campaign for a global approach to health and this includes the environment!
This is why I invite my sisters and brothers in the health sector to join me and the Mothers at the front, on May 8 in the streets of Quebec, to ask our governments to listen to science and to act. .
Together, everything becomes possible!
Michel White MD, Cardiologist, Montreal Heart Institute, Full Professor of Medicine, University of Montreal