Heat stroke, Lyme disease and asthma were once seen as rare conditions that only sporadically cropped up in Ontario. But climate change means these once far-off risks have become grave threats to the health of children in the province, according to a new public health campaign launching Wednesday.“Climate change is the greatest threat to human health in the 21st century,” said Pegeen Walsh, executive director at the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA), which is launching makeitbetterontario.ca, a health information website for parents. The website is part of OPHA’s #MakeItBetter campaign — the first public health initiative in Ontario to link climate change and children’s health.“Our research shows that Ontarians aren’t aware of the health impacts of climate change. People think about something that’s far off, like melting glaciers in Greenland or starving polar bears. But there hasn’t been enough attention on something that’s much closer and more precious: our own children.”As the Star highlighted in its recent Undeniable series on climate change, heat waves in Canada are already becoming more frequent and intense, and they’re worse in urban environments where concrete and pavement absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night. Children are particularly susceptible to heat stroke — a condition which, if left untreated, can kill within hours.Warmer summers have also brought ticks carrying Lyme disease further into Canada, where the disease was once a rarity. Lyme disease diagnoses in Ontario have increased tenfold in the last six years.Smog is made worse by heat, which can exacerbate asthma — a leading cause of hospital admissions for children that disproportionately affects those in low-income, urban neighbourhoods.“The science is showing that there are direct links between global warming and health,” Walsh said, adding that parents can visit the website to ...
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