Environmental health and climate change: clinical guidance and practice resources
Environmental and climate factors influence disease patterns, prevention and patient care.
Environmental health risks are increasingly relevant in the day-to-day care family physicians provide, from respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms to heat-related illness and disaster response and preparedness. Climate change is already affecting patients’ health through worsening heat exposure, air pollution and wildfire smoke, extreme weather, shifting infectious disease risks, and growing threats to food and water security. Family physicians can support their patients and communities by identifying environmental contributors to illness, supporting patients in risk reduction and climate-related preparedness, and coordinating care during and after climate-related disruptions. This hub provides clinical guidance, tools, and patient education resources to support family physicians in addressing environmental health risks in clinical care, while reflecting the AAFP’s ongoing advocacy and collaborations to advance healthier, more climate-smart and climate-resilient health care and communities.
Why climate and environment matter in clinical practice
Family physicians diagnose and manage many conditions that are influenced or directly triggered by environmental exposures and climate-related events. Environmental factors can affect health in both the short and long term, including symptom exacerbations, disease progression, and risks to recovery and functioning.
In clinical practice, environmental and climate considerations can support more accurate assessment and more effective counseling by helping clinicians recognize when patients’ symptoms may be shaped by exposures such as heat, poor air quality, water contamination, occupational hazards, or disaster-related disruption.
Family physicians can incorporate environmental health into everyday care by:
Health impacts of environmental change
Climate change and environmental exposure can influence health through multiple pathways, including direct physiologic stress (e.g., heat), changing exposure patterns (e.g., wildfire smoke), and indirect impacts that affect patients’ stability and access to care (e.g., displacement, food and water insecurity). Family physicians are well positioned to recognize these risks, incorporate environmental considerations into clinical assessment, and support patients with prevention, preparedness, and care coordination.
Heat and extreme weather – Heat exposure can increase the risk of dehydration, heat illness, and worsening of chronic cardiopulmonary conditions, while severe storms and flooding can lead to injury, interruption of care, and displacement-related health impacts.
Air quality and wildfire smoke – Air pollution and wildfire smoke can worsen respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms and increase risks for vulnerable patients, including those with asthma, COPD, and other chronic conditions.
Water quality and water security – Environmental changes can affect water safety and availability, increasing risks from contamination, harmful algal blooms, and infrastructure disruption, especially during and after extreme weather events.
Climate-sensitive infectious diseases – Shifting temperatures and precipitation patterns can influence vector ranges and transmission dynamics, contributing to changes in the geographic distribution and seasonality of some infectious diseases.
Food security and nutrition impacts – Environmental disruption can affect food access, affordability, and nutritional quality, while heat and extreme weather may worsen food insecurity and related chronic disease risks.
Environmental exposures and toxicants – Patients may experience health effects related to hazardous exposures in homes, workplaces, and communities, including mold, pesticides, heavy metals, and other pollutants that can contribute to acute symptoms or long-term health risks.
Mental health and community disruption – Climate-related disasters and chronic climate stressors can contribute to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and grief, and may amplify social stressors that affect health and well-being.
Health equity and disproportionately affected populations – Climate and environmental health impacts often fall most heavily on communities experiencing structural inequities, including people with low incomes, older adults, children, pregnant people, individuals with disabilities, and those with higher cumulative exposure burdens.
Emergency preparedness and disaster response
Climate-related emergencies—including extreme heat, flooding, severe storms, and wildfire smoke—can rapidly increase health risks while also disrupting patients’ access to medications, equipment, and routine care. Maintaining clinical continuity and supporting recovery often requires coordination across health care and community systems.
You can find much more on disaster preparedness for your practice, including insurance checklists and contact information forms, with the AAFP’s resources disasters and emergencies preparedness.
Advocacy and Professional Collaboration
Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health
The AAFP recognizes climate change as a critical public health issue and supports evidence-based policies that protect patients and communities from environmental health threats while strengthening public health and health system capacity. The Academy’s work emphasizes both mitigation and adaptation, including the need to reduce avoidable health risks, improve preparedness, and advance more resilient care delivery.
AAFP also collaborates with partner organizations to amplify physician leadership and support collective action on climate and health, including as a founding member of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.
AAFP’s climate and environmental health priorities include:
Supporting public policies that reduce harmful exposures and protect communities from climate-related health threats
Strengthening emergency preparedness and public health infrastructure to support response and recovery
Advancing climate-smart and climate-resilient health care, including strategies that improve continuity and safety of care during disruptions
Elevating health equity considerations and supporting communities disproportionately affected by environmental and climate-related harms