A National Academies of Science (NAS) committee convened to review the Draft Interagency Report on the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States, also known as the Draft US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) Climate and Health Assessment, released its review document online in mid-September.
This NAS report reviews the draft USGCRP Assessment, and presents a number of suggestions to help strengthen the assessment overall. For example, the review recommends that the rationale behind the selection of which impacts to human health are included in the assessment is more clearly stated. It also recommends that the assessment and description of likelihood and confidence for quantifying health impacts be improved. The review suggests that the authors reconsider including the risk of Legionella pneumonia in the Assessment, suggesting that an increased use of air conditioning in parts of the U.S. due to increased ambient temperatures could lead to an additional risk of legionellosis. The NAS review recommends that if the final USGCRP report excludes Legionella from the document, that the authors provide a rationale for the decision.
In June, AMWA submitted comments on the draft USGCRP Climate and Health Assessment. The final USGCRP Climate and Health Assessment document is expected in early 2016.