TOXICITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

ABUBAKAR SULE DANBATTA

INTRODUCTION

• Climate change refers to change in average weather conditions due to factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation solar received by Earth and volcanic eruptions.

• Human activities• Physical process

Introduction....

• Toxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage an organism such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell (cytotoxicity) or an organ such as the liver(hepatotoxicity).

• Increase in earth temprature

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON ENVIRONMENTAL DISTRIBUTION AND TOXICITY OF CHEMICAL

POLLUTANTS.

• Interactions of toxicants with environmental parameters.

• Temprature increases tropospheric ozone• Pollutants affected include POPs, Air

pollutants.

POTENTIAL RISK AND TOXICITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE TO LIFE

• Affects Human health in Urban and polluted areas.

• Alters food webs, lipid dynamics, organic carbon cycling.

• Elevated tempratures may alter biotransformation of contaminants to more bioactive metabolites

POTENTIAL RISK AND TOXICITY....

• Lead poisoning is particularly detrimental to the neurological development of children.

• Most exposure is by inhalation of airborne dust.

• Follows a seasonal pattern do to changes in temprature

POTENTIAL RISK AND TOXICITY....

• Decrease precipitation enhances volatilization of POPs and other pesticides in atmosphere

• Reduced precipitation also increases air pollution in urbanised areas.

• Increase Precipitation also leads to enhance surface deposition of POPs

POTENTIAL RISK AND TOXICITY....

• Several POPs have been identified as hormone disruptors.

• POPS linked to CVD, Cancers, Obesity, diabetes etc

• Suspected developmental defects in pregnancy

• Increase storms will lead to increase chemical contamination of water bodies.

POTENTIAL RISK AND TOXICITY....

• PAH inhalation in wildfires or consumption of contaminated food leads to cancer

• Drought and high tempratures are conducive to Aspergillus flavus infection and aflatoxin contamination.

• Aflatoxin is implicated in Liver cancer and hepatitis..

POTENTIAL RISK AND TOXICITY....

• Fumonisin causes esophageal cancer and birth defects while Vomitoxin causes vomiting, Anorexia, Growth retardation and immunotoxicity

• Cholera and Salmonella, could become more widespread with climate change because of increased flooding.

STRATEGIES TO MINIMIZE TOXICITY OF CLIMATE

• Mitigation (which involves policies and interventions to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

• Adaptation (which is based on preparing for, and minimizing, the predicted impacts of climate change).

• UNFCCC for many years has been focusing on decreasing gas emissions through the Kyoto Protocol. It was agreed that countries would reassess their emission targets for 2020 as part of the Copenhagen Accord.

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