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Doctors 'must take on eco role'

30/11/2007

Doctors have a vital role to play in helping to tackle the effects of climate change, medical experts have claimed today.

Those working in the medical profession are called on to sign the Climate and Health Council (CHC) declaration, which sets out four ways in which medics can act, in an editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Written by the editor of the Lancet journal, the BMJ editor-in-chief, a retired south-east regional chair of public health and the vice chair of MedAct, the editorial says that doctors' duty to protect and promote the health of the public should extend to preventing climate change.

How medical professionals can act is outlined by the CHC, which says doctors have a duty to inform colleagues and the wider community about the health consequences of climate change and the major health benefits that will result from tackling it.

Doctors should also accept a responsibility to set an example by reducing carbon footprints, the editorial says, and to make a concerted effort to contribute to the post Kyoto treaty framework.

Finally it says doctors should use networks they are in to encourage as many others as possible to facilitate environmentally-friendly change.

In a direct call to doctors, the editorial concludes: "Unless we cap carbon emissions in ways that ensure transfer of resources to the poorer nations, we may all go the way of the dinosaurs, and the going will not be comfortable.

"The Climate and Health Council will be as strong as its collective membership. By adding your voice to the council and taking the necessary actions, you can help to ensure that health professionals are, in the best of our traditions, part of the solution."