LiveScience reports on a study from Australia published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research showing that a warming climate is bad for kids’ health. Lawrence Lam, a pediatrics lecturer at Sydney University, compared emergency room visits for kids under age six to climate data, finding that higher temps outside correlated to more children with fevers and gastroenteritis visiting the ER.
The possible reason: Children’s bodies can’t cope with extreme changes in temperature as well as adults.
“The results from this study suggest a detrimental effect from climatic changes, particularly in terms of maximum temperature, on children’s health,” Lam said. “As global warming is becoming more apparent, there is an urgent need for more in-depth and thorough investigation of climatic factors on human health, especially in early childhood.”
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