The Health Promotion Department at the Ministry of Health, representing the National Committee to Address the Impacts of Climate Change and Environmental Disasters, launched an awareness campaign on Thursday about climate change under the slogan (Climate Change...Enhance Your Health) and will continue for a year.
Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health Affairs and Vice Chairman of the National Committee for Preparedness and Response to the Impacts of Climate Change and Environmental Disasters, Dr. Al-Mundhir Al-Hasawi, said that the Ministry is keen to prepare the health system to be flexible and able to adapt and respond to climate changes.
Al-Hasawi added that the campaign aims to educate society about the complications of high temperatures, how to avoid them, and the necessity of quick action in cases of heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and other complications.
He stated that the Ministry is also keen to raise the level of community health awareness of this phenomenon through the work of the Health Promotion Department, explaining that climate change has many negative effects, including the continuous increase in temperatures and dust storms, as well as heavy rainfall and rising sea levels.
He stated that these climate changes have health consequences, such as sunburn, heat exhaustion, muscle breakdown, and dust-related respiratory diseases, and the matter will worsen without taking any actual measures to slow down the climate change process.
For her part, Director of the Health Promotion Department at the Ministry and member of the National Committee for Preparedness and Response to the Impacts of Climate Change and Environmental Disasters, Dr. Abeer Al-Bahwah, told KUNA that the committee, represented by the Health Promotion Department, launched this campaign to bring together the most important parties related to climate change and have a role in improving the environment.
Al-Bahwa stated that the campaign coincides with the extreme rise in temperatures that Kuwait is currently witnessing, in order to raise awareness among the community through printed educational publications and awareness films in simple language about some of the health harms resulting from it and for all groups and ages of society, especially those with chronic diseases.
She pointed to an accompanying exhibition being held today at the Promenade Mall, while the campaign’s activities continue throughout the year, including awareness seminars, workshops and lectures.
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