Medsin: Global Health

Healthy Planet has three key aims:

The NHS is a massive organization and contributes around 5% of total UK carbon emissions. There is plenty of room for it to clean up its act. The Sustainability Development Unit recently launched a Carbon Reduction Strategy for the NHS (http://www.sdu.nhs.uk/page.php?page_id=94) and as students we have a role to play in making sure that our hospitals are as environmentally friendly as possible, and we can use this Strategy as a guide.

Education is always important. We want to integrate environmental health into medical school curricula and teach climate change as a national health threat, and health co-benefits of lower carbon living as a promotion of national public healthy. Attached to this page is a document, “UCL Climate Change & Health SSM” which provides a template for a second year preclinical SSM, based at UCL.

Healthy Planet works very closely with the Climate and Health Council (http://www.climateandhealth.org/). We want to get students and medical schools signed up to their pledge on climate change (http://www.climateandhealth.org/pledge/) and use this as a base of support to lobby government and say “the health profession will be behind you if you cut carbon emissions” –the health profession is a powerful voice To learn more about our plans and activities, read the “Healthy Planet Portfolio”, attached.

Getting involved with Healthy Planet

Any branch or anyone can become involved with Healthy Planet. If your Medsin branch hasn't started the campaign yet, get in touch with healthyplanet@medsin.org for more information

Background to the campaign

A healthy environment is vital to allow people to live healthy lives. The WHO estimates that 150,000 deaths a year are attributable to man made climate change. Climate change will Direct threats to global health include: increased intensity and frequency of simple climate extremes (heatwaves or coldwaves); complex climatic events and natural disasters (droughts, floods, hurricanes); and changing patterns of infectious diseases, particularly malaria, dengue and cholera. Indirect threats include: exacerbation of already severe water stress; food security and malnutrition; and air quality degradation and respiratory disease.

Many environmentally sound ways of living are also healthier for individuals, as avoiding the use of fossil fuels is often synonymous with living a more active life style and low-carbon policies have health co-benefits. Driving less will reduce road traffic accidents, eating less red meat will reduce certain cancers, exercising and walking more will reduce obesity, and reducing carbon emissions will mean that the air is less polluted, reducing respiratory problems and disease. To learn more about climate change and health, read the attached articles.

Key organisations

The Climate and Health Council are the leading international organisation in mobilising the health profession against climate change (http://www.climateandhealth.org/)

The Campaign for Greener Healthcare work primarily in Greening the NHS (http://www.greenerhealthcare.org/)

The NHS Sustainability Development Unit (SDU) provides guidance on how to reduce NHS Carbon emissions (http://www.sdu.nhs.uk/). They have recently launched a Carbon Reduction Strategy for the NHS (http://www.sdu.nhs.uk/page.php?page_id=94)

Websites and Literature

http://www.who.int/topics/climate/en/ - the WHO website on Climate Change and Health. VERY IMPORTANT!! Strongly recommend you spend a few minutes exploring this section and reading the fact sheets.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7554/DC1 - the BMJ editor's carbon blog, with information about The Healthcare Carbon Council

http://www.sdu.nhs.uk/page.php?area_id=7 – the resource library of the Sustainable Development Unit. Content is largely based on the NHS, making it low carbon, the benefits of it etc.

http://theclimateconnection.org/ - The Climate Connection is a virtual network of health professionals concerned about climate change. You can find events, strategy plans, ideas, discussion forums, and a whole diverse group of people to meet here.

For the Healthy Planet National Director (this year Maya Tickell- Painter, UCL) email maya.tickellpainter@gmail.com or healthyplanet@medin.org

For Healthy Planet in:

Sheffield, email Clare Murphy at mda04cem@sheffield.ac.uk

Newcastle, email Sam Sheppard at sam.sheppard@newcastle.ac.uk

Cambridge, email Shuo Zhang at sz266@cam.ac.uk

Warwick, email Will Regan at thegreenwing@hotmail.com

Leeds, email Amy Carson at um08aac@leeds.ac.uk

Peninsula, email Will and Danny at peninsulamedsin@googlemail.com

UCL, email Mustafa Abbas at mustafa.abbas4@gmail.com

Bristol, email Alex Elliot-Green at alexelliottgreen@gmail.com