Climate change and human health: the critical role of anthropogenic heat in health impact assessment
Joint International Research Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Environmental Pollution and Health Risk Assessment, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
  • Volume
  • Citation
    Dong G. Climate change and human health: the critical role of anthropogenic heat in health impact assessment. Int. J. Environ. Epidemiol. 2026(2):0010, https://doi.org/10.55092/ijee20260010. 
  • DOI
    10.55092/ijee20260010
  • Copyright
    Copyright2026 by the authors. Published by ELSP.
Abstract

Climate change is one of the most critical public health challenges of the 21st century, affecting human health through both direct and indirect pathways. While it is well known for increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, and rising sea levels, its health impacts go far beyond these immediate events. Increasing global temperatures lead to more heatwaves, change the spread of disease-carrying insects, and worsen air quality, all of which increase the risk of cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases. However, many health impact assessments (HIAs) still focus on individual weather factors like ambient temperature, overlooking the combined effects of urbanization, energy consumption, and social inequalities. To address this limitation, anthropogenic heat (AH), the heat produced by human activities, has gained attention as a valuable indicator. It helps capture the complex links between climate, infrastructure, human behavior, and health outcomes.

Keywords

climate change; health impact assessments; anthropogenic heat

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