More Europeans Died Because of Heat in 2022 Than Any Year in Recorded History

As the Earth continues to warm, the rising temperatures are contributing to a number of health conditions that are in turn driving up mortality. And for the first time, scientists have figured out a more detailed way to estimate how many deaths can be attributed to heat. In a paper published in Nature Medicine, researchers in Spain and France calculated that more than 61,000 deaths in Europe could be blamed on the heat during the summer of 2022, the hottest summer on record for the continent. (At least until the readings from 2023 are analyzed later this year.) [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “We are probably not aware of how heat is a silent killer,” says Joan Ballester, professor at ISGlobal, a private research foundation in Barcelona, and lead author of the paper. While health experts have known that rising temperatures can contribute to an increase in potentially fatal conditions such as heat stroke and an increase in heart-related events such as heart attacks, irregular heart beats, and even heart failure, few studies have quantified how much heat can contribute to higher mortality. Using carefully calibrated data on temperatures recorded during the peak of the European heat wave in 35 countries from the end of May to the beginning of September last summer, and correlating that information with more than 45 million similarly temporally calibrated deaths across Europe, the scientists found a strong association between increased temperatures and hi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change embargoed study healthscienceclimate Source Type: news