Standards for Official Statistics on Climate-Health Interactions (SOSCHI): Chemical contaminants: introduction

Climate change is leading to more extreme temperatures, precipitation, and weather events. These changes impact the presence of harmful chemicals in the environment through factors such as contamination of waterbodies through runoff, reduced dilution of waterbodies, and greater use of agricultural chemicals to support crop and cattle yield in warm and dry conditions. Exposure to these contaminants is linked with a range of health outcomes. This Topic Introduction provides an overview of the process we took to identify a climate-health chemical contaminants indicator. This process identified significant limitations in data availability and knowledge within this field. As a result, the SOSCHI framework will not include an indicator on chemical contaminants. We make recommendations for future developments within the field and highlight Harmful Algal Blooms as a potential future indicator.