Children’s health status and climate changes: An investigation on the coastal belt of Bangladesh

• In Event: 1532 - Population and the Environment

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between climate change and children’s health hazards in the coastal region of Bangladesh a region characterized by child malnourishment, high poverty rates and significant environmental hazards. Children are generally more vulnerable than the other age groups because of the cognitive, anatomic, immunologic, and psychological differences (Berger, 2018). Insufficient food, lack of safe drinking water, hygienic living place, proper treatment during and after the disasters make their situation worse. It has been shown that 88% of climate change-related diseases affect children’s health (Sheffield and Landrigan, 2011).
Geographical and socioeconomic vulnerability, high birth rate and high frequency of natural disasters have shaped Bangladesh into one of the worst climate change targets of the world. During 1980-2010, Bangladesh faced 234 natural disasters estimated to have caused 191,836 deaths (BCCRF, 2014).
While the whole country suffers the consequences of climate change, the coastal region is expected to be the most affected as ~10% of agricultural land will be lost due to the sea level rise and increasing intensity of tropical cyclones (IPCC, 1998; Nicholls & Mimura, 1998). People living in the coastal areas are among the poorest in Bangladesh - Solidarity International&Uttaran (2012) shows that 30% of the coastal people reside at Khaslands(state ownership) because they don’t have their own living places. The added issue of climate change only makes their situation worse as they lack the resources to deal with climate change.
In our study we firstly examine critically the existing literature linking child health and climate changes in coastal regions. Secondly, we use the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014 and the Climate Research Unit (CRU) data set to analyze the relation between child health and climate data. In conclusion, we summarize the results and link them back to the existing literature.

Authors

• Monir Hossain, Texas Tech University

• Cristina Bradatan, Texas Tech University

• Hosne Tilat Mahal, Texas Tech University