HEALTH IMPACTS OF CLIMATE-CHANGE AND OZONE DEPLETION - AN ECOEPIDEMIOLOGIC MODELING APPROACH

Anthropogenic climate changes and stratospheric ozone depletion affect human health in various ways. Current mainstream epidemiologic resear ch methods do not appear well adapted to analyze these health impacts, which involve complex systems influenced by human interventions or si mpler processes that will take place in the future. This paper discuss es a different paradigm for studying the health impacts of global envi ronmental changes and focuses on the development of integrated ecoepid emiologic models using three examples-the effect of climate change on vector-borne diseases, the effect of climate change on thermal-related mortality, and the effects of increasing ultraviolet levels because o f ozone depletion on the rates of skin cancer.