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The Air We Breathe: How Extreme Weather Conditions Harm Us

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Extreme Weather, Health, and Communities

Part of the book series: Extreme Weather and Society ((EWS))

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Abstract

This chapter investigates the connection between extreme weather and respiratory health in and around Fresno California, home to over 1 million people. In this chapter, we use Fresno as an important example of a location in the U.S. where its residents are at high risk for short and long term health consequences of extreme conditions of weather. However, there are many other examples of short term extreme weather conditions (forest fires in Yarnell, Arizona) and long term extreme weather conditions (Mediterranean Region) (WHO 2015). Fresno serves as an excellent example since there are combinations of weather, topography, and geography that can be helpful to our understanding of how air pollution affects health. Poor air quality shortens life expectancy, lowers quality of life and, we assert, affects the health and wellbeing of generations to come. Today we see the consequences of air pollution in incidence and severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, cardio-vascular illness and even valley fever, the consequence of inhaling a fungal spore found in the local soils and carried with the wind and mineral dusts of neighboring deserts. Because extremes of temperature, aridity and wind are components of climate and determinants of air quality and respiratory health, strategic planning for public health should monitor and anticipate as best as possible climate variability and change. There is a need to continue to educate ourselves on how climate, extreme weather, and health are linked.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Mary M. Prunicki & Kari C. Nadeau

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  1. Mary M. Prunicki
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Correspondence to Mary M. Prunicki .

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  1. Department of Sociology, Brandman University, Irvine, California, USA

    Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg

  2. The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    William A. Sprigg

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Prunicki, M.M., Nadeau, K.C. (2016). The Air We Breathe: How Extreme Weather Conditions Harm Us. In: Steinberg, S., Sprigg, W. (eds) Extreme Weather, Health, and Communities. Extreme Weather and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30626-1_13

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