Soon, “low-flow” toilets may not be the only environmental bathroom inconvenience American experience. As if there weren’t enough reasons for the public to dive head first in to hysteria of so-called manmade global warming, Americans are now being told their urinary tracts are at risk.
Dr. Margaret Pearle, a urologist professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in
“We are predicting that there will be an increase in the prevalence of stone disease with global warming,” Pearle said.
Pearle said a study from urologists at UT Southwestern concluded global warming will create a U.S. “kidney-stone belt,” which would include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The study predicted that by 2050, global warming-related dehydration will cause up to an additional 2 million kidney stone cases. The solution – a $1 billion increase to ramp up medical service for this one particular ailment.
“We’re looking at, you know, $1 billion dollars of increased need for health care resources,” Pearle said.
The Heartland Institute, an organization that will be holding the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change in
“A link between global warming and kidney stones is on its face absurd,” Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said to the Heartland Institute. “Even a 6 degree increase in temperature does not by itself lead to kidney stones. Assuming for the sake of argument that global warming is occurring and humans are to blame, many of the asserted health risks are not supported by science.”
