Assessment of the Baltic Sea Climate Change Impact on Health

Student morbidity during adaptation to the weather and climate conditions of the Baltic Sea is evaluated from 2012 to 2017 in this study. The research used the Steadman apparent temperature method to analyse the health impact of physical factors and investigated student morbidity in three Kaliningrad universities that had different percentage responses to the local climate change. Apparent temperatures (T) with different combinations of meteorological parameters significantly deviated from monthly average temperatures. For the average temperature and maximum wind speed, apparent temperatures were found to be negative from September to March. In January and February, they were 7.8–16.8 times lower than the average T. With humidity (e.g., RH) unchanged, different combinations of physical factor posed no danger to a person dressed for the weather conditions. In January, at the minimum T and maximum wind speed (Uh), frostbite was possible after 20–30 of exposure. Apparent T close to the threshold value was observed in December and February. The climate of the Kaliningrad enclave is not the best for human health conditions. In the winter, there are serious risks of frostbite in uncovered parts of the body when threshold conditions were not met. Results suggested that disease susceptibility in non-local students representing all the universities was 1.2–1.7 times higher than these of locals students. Also, a relationship between morbidity and percentage of non-local students is obtained, suggesting that the weather and climate conditions will likely adversely affect human health during climate change adaptation that can likely increase the morbidity rate, particularly among the students.