Inflammatory skin conditions as early-life indicators of climate change related environmental stress

Abstract

Climate change is reshaping environmental exposures that are fundamental to human health, including heat stress, air pollution, altered allergen patterns, and water insecurity. At the same time, chronic inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema appear to be increasing among children in many regions. While climate–health research has largely focused on cardiopulmonary and heat-related outcomes, less attention has been given to how environmental instability may influence early immune development and inflammatory conditions during sensitive developmental windows. This Perspective explores the possibility that chronic inflammatory skin conditions may serve as early, visible indicators of climate-related environmental stress. Drawing on concepts from developmental immunology, maternal–fetal health, environmental exposure science, and dermatology, the paper explores how prenatal and early-life exposures may influence immune programming, placental signaling, skin barrier development, and inflammatory responses. Particular attention is given to the skin as both a biological barrier and an active immune interface that may register environmental stress earlier or more visibly than deeper physiological systems. The relationships between climate-related exposures and inflammatory skin outcomes remain complex, multifactorial, and incompletely understood. Rather than proposing direct causation, this Perspective offers a hypothesis-generating framework intended to encourage further discussion and research into how climate-related stress may become biologically embedded during early life. Viewing inflammatory skin conditions as potential developmental signals of environmental stress may also open new directions for environmental health surveillance and maternal–child health research.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Discover Social Science and Health, 2026 · DOI ↗