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eBook/Digital Version available from:
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Score: 97 |
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| Climate Change and Eye Disease: Eye Health and Blindness in a Hostile Environment |
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ISBN: 978-1-03-284408-4,
99 pages,
Hard Cover
ISBN-10: 1-03-284408-6 |
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| Copyright: |
2025 |
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| Edition: |
1st |
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| Author: |
Fraser, Scott |
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Specialties:
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Optometry
, Occupational and Environmental Medicine
, Ophthalmology |
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| Publisher: |
Routledge |
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| Series Title: |
Routledge Studies in Environment and Health |
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| List Price: |
$66.99 |
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| Google: |
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At A Glance
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This book examines the impact of climate change on eye disease and eye health. Filling a lacuna in the existing literature, Scott Fraser takes a deep dive into the eye diseases that are most affected by the climate crisis and explores the subsequent burden on organisations, charities and healthcare systems. Fraser begins by including short primer chapters on the basics of climate science and climate change, highlighting which environmental mechanisms directly and indirectly affect our health and why. He then looks in detail at the direct and indirect threats to eye health from climate change and examines factors including changing insect vectors, trauma from extreme weather events such as wildfires, floods and droughts, as well as the impact of crop failure, malnutrition, animal and plant migration. Highlighting the Global North vs South divide, the book goes on to consider issues around eye care, exploring the increased burden that climate-induced chronic eye diseases including cataracts, macular degeneration and nutritional eye diseases are placing on health care systems. These chapters also reflect on the ways in which eye care, ophthalmology, optometry, pharmaceutical and medical device companies all contribute to the climate footprint themselves. Unique and timely, this book will be a great resource for students and clinicians of ophthalmology, optometry and allied eye care professions, as well as climate scientists, researchers, policy makers, charities, NGOs working in related fields of environment and health.
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Reviewer:
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Richard Savoy,
OD MPH
(Southern College of Optometry)
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Range
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Question
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Score
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| 1-10 |
Are the author's objectives met? |
10 |
| 1-10 |
Rate the worthiness of those objectives. |
10 |
| 1-5 |
Is this written at an appropriate level? |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) |
4 |
| 1-5 |
Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) |
4 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the authority of the authors. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Are there sufficient illustrations? |
N/A |
| 1-5 |
Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. |
N/A |
| 1-5 |
Rate the print quality of the illustrations. |
N/A |
| 1-5 |
Are there sufficient references? |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the currency of the references. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the pertinence of the references. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
Rate the helpfulness of the index. |
5 |
| 1-5 |
If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book |
N/A |
| 1-10 |
Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? |
10 |
| 1-10 |
If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? |
N/A |
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Reviewer:
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Richard Savoy,
OD MPH
(Southern College of Optometry)
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Description
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| This book broadly covers environmental climate change and its implications regarding eye disease. The book progresses from a description of basic climate change science to climate change's effect on human health in general, eye health in particular, and the implications of these changes on future health care and future environmental climate change policy. |
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Purpose
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| The book's purpose is to heighten awareness of the dangers of environmental climate change to human eye health. Specifically, it focuses on climate change's potential effects on the eyes and vision as well as "humanity's" role in either exacerbating or ameliorating the outcomes. This book is needed, and its objectives are quite reasonable. It successfully fulfills its objectives. |
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Audience
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| The book is effectively written for eye care practitioners (both ophthalmologists and optometrists). However, it would be useful to all public health practitioners and, in general, to anyone knowledgeable regarding climate change. The author is imminently qualified to write the book based upon his academic degree, work experience, and research involvement. |
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Features
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| Initially, the book presents convincing evidence that environmental climate change is real and that it has and will continue to have direct and indirect effects on human health in general. Next, it addresses specific eye disease repercussions. The book moves to the effects of climate change on eye care, the societal burden of blindness, and, somewhat surprisingly, to eye care's "contribution" to environmental climate change. The book concludes assessing the future by detailing some recent successes combating eye disease and considering and proposing important future policy considerations. Well organized, it is a relatively short work that concisely describes and discusses the issues raised. It can be a "quick read" with multiple credible references allowing for more in-depth study, if desired. A solid working knowledge and understanding of statistical terms and measures would better improve comprehension of the conclusions reached by the book. |
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Assessment
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| As environmental climate change and eye disease is a relatively new field of study, this book appears to be the first or at least one of the first, books to address the topic. It is a high quality, thoroughly cited scholarly work, which can prove to be most useful to the intended audience. This audience includes busy eye care practitioners who want or need a research-supported summary of current views on the subject. |
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