Figure understanding-the-exposure-pathway-diagrams

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Allison Crimmins

This figure appears in chapter front-matter of the The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment report.

The center boxes include selected examples of climate drivers, the primary pathways by which humans are exposed to health threats from those drivers, and the key health outcomes that may result from exposure. The left gray box indicates examples of the larger environmental and institutional context that can affect a person’s or community’s vulnerability to health impacts of climate change. The right gray box indicates the social and behavioral context that also affects a person’s vulnerability to health impacts of climate change. This path includes factors such as race, gender, and age, as well as socioeconomic factors like income and education or behavioral factors like individual decision making. The examples listed in these two gray boxes can increase or reduce vulnerability by influencing the exposure pathway (changes in exposure) or health outcomes (changes in sensitivity or adaptive capacity). The diagram shows that climate change can affect health outcomes directly and by influencing the environmental, institutional, social, and behavioral contexts of health.

Free to use with credit to the original figure source.