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Ecological transition and health: the role of physicians and healthcare
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This perspective article examines the role of physicians and healthcare workers in addressing climate change and pollution as major public health threats, including microplastics, PFAS, and fine particulate matter. It argues that the medical community must move beyond disease treatment to advocate for reduced fossil fuel use and sustainable healthcare policies.
Climate change and pollution are major public health threats, contributing to the rise of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular conditions, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. The medical community plays a key role in raising awareness and promoting sustainable healthcare practices. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the risks of unsustainable resource exploitation. Pollutants like microplastics, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and PFAS chemicals contaminate air, water, and food, posing serious health risks. Despite scientific evidence, global efforts to combat climate change remain insufficient, with international agreements struggling to limit fossil fuel use. The medical community must look beyond disease treatment and address the environmental and socioeconomic determinants of health. A sustainable future depends on reducing pollution, limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and implementing eco-friendly healthcare policies. Time is running out, and urgent action is needed.
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The climate crisis in clinical practice: Addressing air pollution, heat, and microplastics
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This review examines how climate change-driven environmental threats including air pollution, extreme heat, and microplastics are already affecting patients in clinical settings. Researchers found that these exposures disproportionately harm vulnerable populations and that physicians need to be equipped to recognize and address the health effects of environmental degradation. The study argues that healthcare professionals have a critical role to play in both treating affected patients and advocating for policies that reduce fossil fuel-related pollution.
A Practical Guide for Physicians and Health Care Workers to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint in Daily Clinical Work
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This commentary provides practical strategies for physicians and healthcare workers to reduce their individual carbon footprints in daily clinical practice, framing medical professionals as having a privileged duty to protect planetary health. The authors highlight that many carbon-reduction measures in clinical settings also carry direct health co-benefits.
Planetary health and clinical practice: From concept to consultation
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Climate change and pollution aren't just environmental problems—they're already showing up in doctors' offices as heat stroke, asthma attacks, and even tiny plastic particles found in blood vessel plaques and brains, where they're linked to higher risks of heart problems and dementia. This review argues that doctors should start treating environmental factors as a routine part of patient care, alongside simple fixes like choosing lower-carbon inhalers and cutting back on unnecessary medications. The bigger takeaway for you: a healthier planet and a healthier body increasingly go hand in hand, so the air you breathe, the plastics you're
Environmentally sustainable critical care: Special issue introduction
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This editorial introduces a special issue on environmentally sustainable critical care, highlighting the healthcare sector's significant contribution to climate change, air pollution, and waste generation. The authors discuss how the triple planetary crisis of environmental degradation is both worsened by and harmful to healthcare delivery. The piece calls for urgent action to reduce the environmental footprint of medical care, including addressing single-use plastics and waste management.
Environmental sustainability special issue of Nursing in Critical Care
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This editorial highlights the connection between planetary health and healthcare, focusing on how environmental threats like climate change, pollution, and microplastics affect both patient well-being and the healthcare system's own environmental footprint. The author argues that critical care nurses and healthcare professionals have a responsibility to address environmental sustainability in their practice. The piece calls for greater awareness and action within the nursing profession to promote both human and planetary health.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.