Doctors call for climate change action

30 Nov 2011, 1:51 pm   -   Source: AAP

The AMA wants action on a report warning that more Australians will die in heatwaves and catch infectious diseases as a result of climate change.

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Doctors are calling on the federal government to develop a national strategy to cope with the damaging impact climate change will have on people's health.

The Climate Commission report, released on Wednesday, warns more Australians face dying in heatwaves or catching infectious diseases as a result of climate change.

Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Steve Hambleton says climate change poses "a real and imminent threat to the health of Australians".

"The federal government must develop a national strategy for health and climate change to ensure that Australia can respond effectively," Dr Hambleton said in a statement on Wednesday.

In the report, The Critical Decade, the commission warns more heatwaves could spark a rise in heart attacks, strokes, accidents and heat exhaustion.

And in a worst case scenario, there could be up to 10 times as many deaths related to hotter temperatures in Queensland and the Northern Territory by 2100.

Diseases such as dengue fever could also be easier to catch as a result of more floods, while extra bushfires and higher pollution levels spell trouble for asthmatics.

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