Climate change to cause rise in kidney stones

By Catherine Elsworth
Last Updated: 7:01pm BST 15/07/2008

Global warming could lay waste to vast tracts of the earth - and may also lead to more Americans suffering kidney stones, scientists have warned.
Kidney stones, which can be extremely painful, are often caused by dehydration as the body is unable to flush minerals out of the system.

Researchers say that as temperatures rise, the driest parts of the US could see a 30 per cent increase in kidney stone disease.The study by University of Texas researchers predicts that warmer temperatures could extend America's existing "kidney stone belt", an area of the South East where men have been found to be twice as likely to develop kidney stones as in the North East.
The claims, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are based on existing data on kidney stone incidence and climate change projections made by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.
The increase would represent between 1.6 million and 2.2 million cases by 2050, according to the study, potentially pushing annual treatment costs up to around one billion dollars.
"This study is one of the first examples of global warming causing a direct medical consequence for humans," said Margaret Pearle, professor of urology at University of Texas Southwestern and senior author of the paper.
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"When people relocate from areas of moderate temperature to areas with warmer climates, a rapid increase in stone risk has been observed. This has been shown in military deployments to the Middle East for instance."
Tom Brikowski, the study's lead author, compared kidney stone rates with UN forecasts of temperature increases and created two mathematical models to predict the impact on future populations.
According to one set of data, the existing "kidney stone belt" comprising southeastern states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee would grow to encompass over half the US population by 2050.
The other model predicts the increase would be concentrated in the upper Midwest.
The study adds that "similar climate-related changes in the prevalence of kidney-stone disease can be expected in other stone belts worldwide."