Climate change and respiratory health.

Objective: To discuss the nature of climate change and both its immediate and long-term effects on human respiratory health.

Methods: This review is based on information from a presentation of the American College of Chest Physicians course on Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease held in Toronto, Canada, June 2013. It is supplemented by a PubMed search for climate change, global warming, respiratory tract diseases, and respiratory health.