EPA finds health risks in climate change

By DAVID A. FAHRENTHOLD and J ULIET EILPERIN, Washington Post Climate change will pose "substantial" threats to human health in the coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday -- issuing its warnings about heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens just days after the agency declined to regulate the pollutants blamed for warming. In a new report, the EPA found "it is very likely" that more people will die during extremely hot periods in future years -- and that the elderly, the poor, and those in inner cities will be most at risk. Other possible dangers include more powerful hurricanes, shrinking supplies of fresh water and the increased spread of diseases contracted through food and water, it said. But the EPA report was less notable for its warnings -- similar problems have been predicted by other... [read full story]