Climate change and its impact on cancer

Climate change, no doubt, has much impact o the environment with rising temperature and poor air, which ultimately brings along with it several diseases. A latest study has shown that climate change influences cancer and augments the disease many times.

The latest analysis shows that skin, lung and gastrointestinal cancers have seen an increase because of the climate change. The researchers from UC San Francisco looked into the effects of radiation, pollution, disruptions in water and food supply and infectious agents on various cancer types.  However, the authors maintained that overall effects of climate change on nutrition related cancers were difficult to ascertain.

Lead author Robert A Hiatt at the UC Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Centre said that the world is yet to slow down climate change.

The researchers warned that the impacts of climate change on health are only expected to grow. They said that a rise in temperature, wild fire and poor air quality only increases respiratory and even cardio vascular diseases. They also said that warmer climate and change in rainfall can lead to the spread of vector borne disease.

They also said that climate change could destroy health-care infrastructure and even reduce health care quality and availability. This could ultimately bring a shift in cancer treatment that could be hard to control.

The authors said in the study that it could take several years to understand the impact of climate change on cancer.