Chronic Kidney Disease Is Poised To Become The Black Lung of Climate Change

It’s official. July was the world’s hottest month on record, scientists from the European climate monitoring agency confirmed on Aug. 8, a full 1.5°C (2.7°F) warmer than pre-industrial averages, offering a potent taste of what is to come in a world made hotter by climate change. The wildfires and heat waves that wreathed much of the northern hemisphere in smoke this summer? Expect more of the same. The surge in deaths and hospitalization from heat stress and stroke? Ditto. An increase in chronic kidney disease of non-traditional origin? Yup. Wait, what? [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] One of the enduring legacies of this summer’s spate of heat waves is likely to be a disease that few people have heard of, but which could become more prevalent as heat and humidity increase around the world. First documented in El Salvador’s sugarcane workers 21 years ago, Mesoamerican nephropathy, now known as Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-traditional origin (CKDnt), tends to manifest among outdoor laborers who work grueling hours in high heat conditions. Characterized by a fatal progressive loss of kidney function, CKDnt has killed at least 20,000 people in Central America since it was first diagnosed, and likely tens of thousands more elsewhere in the world. It’s been documented among rice farmers and salt harvesters in Thailand, Nepali migrant laborers in the Middle East and Malaysia, brickmakers and coconut harvesters in India, and in ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change Climate Is Everything healthscienceclimate Source Type: news