The organization that represents unionized nurses in the country is raising concerns about 
climate change and how it is impacting patient health. The discussion paper by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions says over the coming decades, our rapidly changing climate will pose the biggest threat to human health and well-being across every region of our planet.Local Mental Health Nurse and Development and Peace volunteer Terry O’Toole says this document is an invitation to nurses to go beyond the hospital walls in delivering health care. O’Toole says the document sees climate change having a tremendous impact on people.
The report says we are seeing the impacts of climate change on human health now. It points to a report by the World Health Organization which estimates that temperature rise between 1998 to 2017 caused the deaths of 160,000 people through heat stress and stroke. With industrial pollution there’s been a significant increase in asthma cases, particularly among children.