The environmental impacts of conflict

Often overlooked as a dimension of the health effects of war, the impacts of conflict on the environment are gaining increasing attention. Rebecca Sers reports.

Armed conflicts pose unprecedented challenges for public health. Inevitably, much of the focus in these contexts falls on acute health needs. But modern warfighting causes conflict pollution and environmental harm leading to potentially important, more chronic, health risks. Doug Weir of the Conflict and Environmental Observatory told The Lancet that while “there is more awareness of this environmental damage, most of that is about the immediate impacts of the things that are burning, the things that are exploding, and the things that are destroyed. Less consideration is given to the consequences for environmental governance which can last decades potentially, and the almost inevitable public health legacies.” As the number of countries and people affected by conflict continues to rise—according to the 2025 Global Peace Index there are currently more conflicts globally than at any time since World War Two—the importance of documenting what Richard Sullivan has termed “covert threats to health” will only grow.

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