“It is imperative that various health-related professionals and organizations work together on climate change, environmental degradation and its impact on health,” the Portuguese Council for Health and the Environment (CPSA), which will be set up in Ceremony at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
The CPSA, which brings together five professional organizations, associations, scientific societies, laboratories, private medical groups, Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Lisboa and the pharmaceutical industry, is also committed to preparing the healthcare system for unexpected developments and new disease epidemiology. and reducing the ecological footprint of the health sector, responsible for 4.4% of greenhouse gas emissions.
“If this were a country, it would be the fifth biggest polluter on the planet,” said Lusa Campos, the initiator of the CPSA.
The doctor and president of the Commission for Quality and Professional Affairs of the European Federation of Internal Medicine explained that the creation of the council “comes from the awareness” of the existing “big consequences” of events such as overpopulation, depletion of natural resources, degradation of ecosystems and climate change affect the health of the population.
“More than 5 million excess deaths can be attributed to abnormally extreme temperatures and pollution, for example, this is the cause of about 9 million deaths per year,” he stressed.
Luis Campos warned of other consequences that climate change will bring, namely the epidemiological change in diseases, the increase in cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, and the “higher likelihood” of pandemics and disasters.
“The healthcare system needs to be more prepared to respond to these changes and these developments that will happen more frequently in the future.”
On the other hand, he defended, “health professionals, as advocates for patients, but also as citizens, have an ethical obligation to participate in this global prevention.”
The World Health Organization and several scientific associations and societies in various countries have already called for such participation.
