How improving public health and combating climate change are the same issue
Dr Munro Stewart explains how so many of chronic illnesses and pressures on the NHS are rooted in the environment we live in.
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In this story we hear from Dr Munro Stewart, a GP in Dundee. He works in a busy medical practice which covers a mixture of areas, some with serious deprivation and some more affluent. We walked around a few of Dundee’s parks and green spaces and talked about how improving public health and looking after our environment are remarkably similar. As Munro sees it, the biggest health crisis we are facing is climate change, and the future of public health is contingent on tackling climate related issues, and making healthcare sustainable enough that we can continue to provide it in the future. Topics covered include air pollution, active travel, diet, food prices, and flooding.
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“The biggest health crisis this century is going to be around the climate and the environment so if I want to have the biggest impact on health, then take the biggest problem for health and do what I can to work on climate.”
“Everyone wants to feel safe at home … if you’re going home and that place is unsafe or at risk of flooding then that’s terribly stressful. Stress puts you into an inflammatory state which can be linked to all sorts of chronic conditions.”
“There’s a huge amount of young people telling me that they are worried about the environment and their future … that’s a really big burden for young people to have without the tools to feel like they can fix it … We need to be talking about prevention being better than the cure. We can’t keep destroying the environment and having ever more healthcare to cope with what’s making people sicker. We need to go upstream and make the places that people live healthier”
“Chronic disease is affected by the environment, and if we take the steps we need to take to improve the environment - clear air, people walking and cycling, public transport, properly insulated homes – that can tackle this inflammatory state that everyone is in.”
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Stories From Round Our Way. Everyday conversations with people impacted by climate change.
This recording gets to 18m 35s and always stops and jumps to the end. Is it a glitch on my computer?