Multicare and the Fidelidade Impact Center for Climate Change (ICCC) have joined the colloquium “Forest Fires and Human Health.” Promoted by the Portuguese Council for Health and Environment (CPSA), the initiative will take place on July 8 at the Multicare auditorium in Lisbon, according to a press release.
According to the same source, gathering a broad range of experts and reference bodies, this initiative aims to discuss the impacts of forest fires on human health and identify integrated responses to mitigate their effects, in a context where Portugal presents itself as particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.
Forest fires are an escalating problem, linked to global warming and the increase in the intensity and duration of heat waves. In Portugal, an area equivalent to almost a quarter of the national territory has burned in the last 20 years, making the country the European nation with the largest burned area.
Multicare, as the largest health insurer in Portugal and a CPSA member, participates in this initiative as an institutional partner, contributing to the deepening of knowledge and reflection on the health impacts of fires on public health, while the ICCC reinforces its role in promoting initiatives that link climate, sustainability, and societal impact.
The program includes sessions dedicated to analyzing Portugal’s vulnerability to forest fires, the systemic impact of these phenomena on human health, and the presentation of the CPSA Guide to Forest Fires, with the participation of Luís Campos, President of CPSA, José Miguel Cardoso Pereira, Professor at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, José Chen, from Lancet Countdown; Filipe Duarte Santos, from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and Filipe Santos Martins, CEO of Multicare.
The program also features a roundtable dedicated to the challenges and opportunities to mitigate the impact of fires on human health, which will feature the interventions of José Manuel Moura, President of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection; Nuno Banza, President of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests; Pimenta Machado, President of the Portuguese Environment Agency; Miguel Arriga, Director of the Department of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Directorate-General of Health; and Rui Esteves, Chief Technical Director for Non-Life and Life Risk at Fidelidade and co-leader of the ICCC.
Multicare and Fidelidade’s ICCC participate in this initiative as part of their commitment to health promotion and addressing the challenges associated with climate change, reinforcing their role in producing and disseminating knowledge, in preventing emerging risks, and in strengthening the resilience of communities in the face of the growing impacts of these phenomena.
