CFE Agenda 02082021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment 2 Resolution to protect Orange County Residents from the Devastating Impacts to Public Health of Climate Change Based on Center for Disease Control and Prevention Climate Effects on Health (https://www.cdc.aov/climateandhealth/effects/) WHEREAS climate change has increased the frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods in the United States and these extreme events are increasing human injury and death; and WHEREAS climate change is projected to harm human health by increasing ground-level ozone and/or particulate matter air pollution in some US locations. Estimates that assume no change in regulatory controls or population characteristics have ranged from 1,000 to 4,300 additional premature deaths nationally per year by 2050 from combined ozone and particle health effects; and WHEREAS climate change will potentially lead to both higher pollen concentrations and longer pollen seasons, causing more people to suffer more health effects from pollen and other allergens. Climate change will potentially lead to shifts in precipitation patterns, more frost-free days, warmer seasonal air temperatures, and more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. These changes can affect: • when the pollen season starts and ends and how long it lasts each year, • how much pollen plants create and how much is in the air, • how pollen affects our health (the"allergenicity" of pollen), • how much pollen we're exposed to, and • our risk of experiencing allergy symptoms. and WHEREAS climate change is increasing the vulnerability of many forests to wildfires and is also projected to increase the frequency of wildfires in certain regions of the United States thus increasing impacts on public health. Smoke exposure increases respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations; emergency department visits; medication dispensations for asthma, bronchitis, chest pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and respiratory infections; and medical visits for lung illnesses.Area burned by wildfires has increased across the United States over the past two decades, and 2020 is particularly bad ; and WHEREAS climate change has induced extreme heat events in many cities, including St. Louis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cincinnati that have suffered dramatic increases in death rates during heat waves. Unusually hot summer temperatures have become more common across the contiguous 48 states in recent decades, and extreme heat events are expected to become longer, more frequent, and more intense in the future. As a result, the risk of heat-related deaths and illness is also expected to increase ; and WHEREAS climate change has increased the frequency of heavy precipitation events for some U.S. regions, and is projected to increase in all U.S. regions. These extreme precipitation events have contributed to increases in severe flooding. Floods are the second deadliest of all weather-related hazards in the United States, accounting for approximately 98 deaths per year, most due to drowning; and WHEREAS climate change induced climate variability can sometimes result in vector/pathogen adaptation and shifts or expansions in their geographic ranges. Such shifts can alter disease incidence