Expert warns of health concerns

In the eyes of Dr. Eric Chivian, health care doesn't end at the hospital bedside or in the laboratory - it also extends into the environment.

Chivian spoke to medical students at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday as part of a weekend-long regional conference for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), an organization that promotes activism in community service.

Chivian warned of the escalating environmental dilemmas caused by a growing global population, pollution and global warming.

"I don't think we have time to wait," Chivian said.

Director of Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, Chivian co-founded International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts.

JOY JACOBS/Daily Dr. Eric Chivian addresses a crowd of medical students at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday night. Chivian warned the crowd that the rising population worldwide is increasing problems of global warming.

Alluding to a $12 million campaign by oil companies to dissuade people of the dangers of burning fossil fuels, Chivian said that physicians have the power and responsibility to increase public awareness on such issues.

"The United States (has) five percent of the world's population. We make 22 percent of the world's greenhouse gases," Chivian said. Despite opponents' assertions that environmentalists don't have enough proof to back up their claims, Chivian said there is reason to be concerned.

In the past 50 years alone, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased 30 percent, Chavin said.

"We're above levels that have existed for 130,000 years," he said.

As a result, the average surface temperature has increased, and projections predict it will rise two degrees Celsius in the next century. While this may not seem like much, Chivian pointed out that it was only a difference of five degrees that separates our time from the Ice Age.

In 1995, the hottest year on record, Chicago felt the effects of a heat wave responsible for claiming the lives of about 700 people.

"There will be both an increase in intensity and an increase in frequency of heat waves," Chivian said. The poor, elderly and infants are especially vulnerable. Severe food shortages could also be a result, as livestock are killed by heatwaves and agriculture is affected by drought, he said.

Frank Faustus, AMSA chapter president at Case Western University, said Chivian raised important issues.

"I think that he brought up some really good points concerning the responsibility of physicians in the idea of environmental protection for public heath reasons," Faustus said.

Chivian also expressed concern for the continuing destruction of natural habitat around the world and the ultimate affect it has on the animal population.

"With a loss of species, we may be losing models that are tremendously important to human research," Chivian said.

For example, black bears may offer clues to the treatment of osteoperosis. For four to five months of the year, the bears are essentially immobile. Yet the bears lose no bone mass, while humans would lose about 25 percent due to similar inactivity.

Chivian also mentioned that researchers are trying to discover why sharks have a much greater immunity than humans to diseases such as cancer.

"If we lose species, we may lose the secrets, the models from millions and millions of years of evolution," Chivian said.

Conference co-coordinator Rajesh Govindala said the event was a success.

"We wanted to present a conference that would give students an opportunity to find out all the ways they can be proactive in health-care causes," Govindala said.

11-17-97