Climate change and respiratory allergic diseases

Sang-Heon Kim; Ho Joo Yoon

doi:10.5124/jkma.2011.54.2.161

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 54(2); 2011 > Article

Kim and Yoon: Climate change and respiratory allergic diseases

Focused Issue of This Month

Climate Change and Allergy

Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2011; 54(2): 161-168.

Published online: February 11, 2011

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2011.54.2.161

Climate change and respiratory allergic diseases

Sang-Heon Kim, MD, Ho Joo Yoon, MD

Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Ho Joo Yoon, hjyoon@hanyang.ac.kr

Received January 05, 2011 Accepted January 18, 2011

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

There is a firm consensus that Earth's climate has been changed and will be changed in further future due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change affects human health and respiratory allergic diseases, such as asthma and allergic rhinitis, in various ways. The increase in both the incidence of asthma and global surface temperature in the same period suggests that climate change is a plausible explanation for the asthma epidemic. Additionally, climate change could influence also the severity and acute exacerbation of asthma. Several mechanisms were suggested to explain the effects of climate change on respiratory allergic diseases: increased exposure to pollens and molds spores, aggravated air pollutions, direct effects of extreme weather and thunderstorm and changes in respiratory infections. However, data and evidences are lacking to answer what the net effects of climate on asthma and allergic rhinitis and its mechanisms are. Great efforts and active roles are required for the physicians in developing strategies to mitigate climate change and adaptation to its effects on respiratory allergic diseases.

Climate change; Respiratory allergic diseases; Asthma; Allergic rhinitis

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Table 1

The suggested mechanisms of the impact of climate change on respiratory allergic diseases