Addressing a function organised in connection with the World Health Day by the Indian Red Cross Society and Blood Donors’ Club of Madurai Medical College at the Government Rajaji Hospital, she expressed concern over the growing threat to the public health security by rapid changes in climate.

Quoting World Health Organisation statistics, she informed that around 1.5 lakh deaths occurred every year due to climate change and the number might get doubled by 2030 if there was no remedial action.

These factors were affirmed with noticeable changes occurring in the incidence of vector borne diseases and fast altering pattern of natural disasters, she said.

Citing children, elderly people and those with cardiac and respiratory problems as vulnerable to climatic change, she said that many of the leading killer diseases were sensitive to climatic conditions; their incidence and spread were likely to be affected by changing weather patterns.

Pointing to the dwindling greenery and increasing concrete structures in cities, she said that they had created many heat islands contributing to a soaring temperature. Reducing pollution levels and efficient land and water management could be a solution to reduce the factors that influenced climate change, she said.

Deliberating on the topic, S. Sethu Rakkayee of Department of Geography, Sri Meenakshi Government College for Women, said that a rise in temperature would effect a change in pressure, wind, humidity, precipitation and evaporation.

A. Ayyappan, Professor and Head, Department of Medicine, M.L. Vasantha Kumari, Professor and Head, Department of Paediatrics and V. Velusamy, Medical Officer, GRH Blood Bank, took part.