Your car causes salmonella and other funny global warmy stories

It’s another warmy story:

NSW recorded its worst figures in at least five years for diseases caused by food poisoning and mosquito bites, as doctors warn climate change is looming as a public health emergency.

Statistics released last week show 2016 was the worst year on record for diseases including legionnaires’ disease, salmonellosis, listeriosis, E. coli and dengue fever, which flourish in warmer conditions.

--Harriet Alexander, Sydney Morning Herald

More scary than 4000 cases of salmonella is the state of intellectual rigor among medico-unions:

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians [RACP] has released a position paper that described climate change as a “global public health emergency”.

The RACP called for a national climate and health strategy and reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.

With reasoning like that, they could make a lot more people very sick. Are they advocating we use solar panels to stop salmonella?

There has hardly been any warming in the last 20 years anyhow. And if we are doing cosmic epidemiology, so far global warming seems to come with longer lifespans, health, wealth, food, and less polio.

It’s likely that climate change will make you throw up, but it won’t be gastroenteritis. Salmonella is spread through bad food handling – by mixing up a bit of manure with dinner, say. (Wash your hands. Wash your salad. Wash. your. hands).

Coincidentally, on Jan 5th, researchers announced that hot weather didn’t make any difference to salmonella stats. So much for that theory:

Hot weather not to blame for salmonella on egg farms

New research conducted by the University of Adelaide shows there is no greater risk of Salmonella contamination in the production of free range eggs in Australia due to hot summer weather, compared with other seasons.

The findings are further evidence that the hygiene around egg handling in the supply chain and in household and restaurant kitchens is critical to reducing food poisoning from eggs.

People need to wash their hands.

The big question then, do we cripple the economy to solve this one, or give out bars of soap and teach people why it matters?

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