Word: brikowski
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Dates: during 2008-2008
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...hypothesized other health consequences of climate change before, some better supported by evidence than others: heat waves that kill, new breeding grounds for mosquitoes that spread deadly malaria or dengue fever, and stagnant warm air pockets that trap disease-causing smog. But in this study, says lead researcher Tom Brikowski, he and his colleagues are pretty sure they've traced a direct relationship between human health and temperature - no mosquitoes or air pollution are needed to make the link. Even in the belt region where kidney stones are common and populations have adjusted their lifestyles to the heat, cases still...
What's not clear, however, is the exact relationship between temperature and kidney stone rates. If each additional degree of heat causes an incremental increase in stones, Brikowski and colleagues predict we'll see new kidney stone cases concentrated in regions with the most rapid temperature changes: California, Texas, Florida and the Eastern seaboard. But if there's a threshold temperature at which risk shoots up - some evidence suggests such a threshold exists at about 13.4 degrees C (56 degrees F) - they expect the hardest-hit regions to be those where mean temperature crosses the threshold: Northern California...
Until this month, Brikowski says he'd barely thought about bigger political implications of his work. "But I did warn my family that if I get a letter from the Vice President to go hunting, they could ignore it," he says...
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