The toxicology of climate change: environmental contaminants in a warming world.
Abstract
Climate change induced by anthropogenic warming of the earth's atmosphere is a daunting
problem. This review examines one of the consequences of climate change that has only
recently attracted attention: namely, the effects of climate change on the environmental
distribution and toxicity of chemical pollutants. A review was undertaken of the scientific
literature (original research articles, reviews, government and intergovernmental
reports) focusing on the interactions of toxicants with the environmental parameters,
temperature, precipitation, and salinity, as altered by climate change. Three broad
classes of chemical toxicants of global significance were the focus: air pollutants,
persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including some organochlorine pesticides, and
other classes of pesticides. Generally, increases in temperature will enhance the
toxicity of contaminants and increase concentrations of tropospheric ozone regionally,
but will also likely increase rates of chemical degradation. While further research
is needed, climate change coupled with air pollutant exposures may have potentially
serious adverse consequences for human health in urban and polluted regions. Climate
change producing alterations in: food webs, lipid dynamics, ice and snow melt, and
organic carbon cycling could result in increased POP levels in water, soil, and biota.
There is also compelling evidence that increasing temperatures could be deleterious
to pollutant-exposed wildlife. For example, elevated water temperatures may alter
the biotransformation of contaminants to more bioactive metabolites and impair homeostasis.
The complex interactions between climate change and pollutants may be particularly
problematic for species living at the edge of their physiological tolerance range
where acclimation capacity may be limited. In addition to temperature increases, regional
precipitation patterns are projected to be altered with climate change. Regions subject
to decreases in precipitation may experience enhanced volatilization of POPs and pesticides
to the atmosphere. Reduced precipitation will also increase air pollution in urbanized
regions resulting in negative health effects, which may be exacerbated by temperature
increases. Regions subject to increased precipitation will have lower levels of air
pollution, but will likely experience enhanced surface deposition of airborne POPs
and increased run-off of pesticides. Moreover, increases in the intensity and frequency
of storm events linked to climate change could lead to more severe episodes of chemical
contamination of water bodies and surrounding watersheds. Changes in salinity may
affect aquatic organisms as an independent stressor as well as by altering the bioavailability
and in some instances increasing the toxicity of chemicals. A paramount issue will
be to identify species and populations especially vulnerable to climate-pollutant
interactions, in the context of the many other physical, chemical, and biological
stressors that will be altered with climate change. Moreover, it will be important
to predict tipping points that might trigger or accelerate synergistic interactions
between climate change and contaminant exposures.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Air PollutantsEnvironmental Exposure
Environmental Pollution
Greenhouse Effect
Humans
Hypersensitivity
Organic Chemicals
Particulate Matter
Pesticides
Pulmonary Heart Disease
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6983Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.envint.2009.02.006Publication Info
Noyes, Pamela D; McElwee, Matthew K; Miller, Hilary D; Clark, Bryan W; Van Tiem, Lindsey
A; Walcott, Kia C; ... Levin, Edward D (2009). The toxicology of climate change: environmental contaminants in a warming world. Environ Int, 35(6). pp. 971-986. 10.1016/j.envint.2009.02.006. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6983.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Edward Daniel Levin
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Levin is Chief of the Neurobehavioral Research Lab in the Psychiatry Department
of Duke University Medical Center. His primary academic appointment is as Professor
in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He also has secondary appointments
in the Department Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, the Department of Psychological
and Brain Sciences and the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke. His primary
research effort is to understand basic neural interactions underlyi

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