2023-07-10 17:00:10
The summer of 2022 has seen many more heat-related deaths than previously thought. According to data published on Monday July 10 by a team of researchers from ISGlobal, in Spain, and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), in France, nearly 62,000 people in 35 countries would be died from the heat that engulfed Europe from May 30 to September 4, 2022.
Until then, international bodies such as the World Health Organization or the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Copernicus network estimated that between 15,000 and just over 16,000 people had died at because of the scorching waves of this summer, recorded for the moment as the hottest of the 21st century. These organizations only took into account the hottest moments, while the study published on July 10 examines the entire meteorological summer, which includes the months of June, July and August.
Read also: How Météo-France defines a “heat wave”
“Health alert systems only activate during heat waves, but there are many other temperatures, not classified as scorching, which can have a significant impact on healthunderlines Hicham Achebak, postdoctoral researcher at Inserm and one of the authors of the study. This shows that much remains to be done in many countries to put in place more effective measures. »
Especially since probably even more people succumbed to the heat during the summer of 2022. The data compiled from the European database Eurostat underestimates the true figures, which the researchers point out as one of the limits of their works. Indeed, as some countries did not provide daily mortality data, they had to work from less precise weekly data. “It is understandable that they used the weekly data, because it is the only data accessible so quickly”analyzes Pierre Masselot, research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who did not participate in the study. “Using this data compiled by week can smooth out the excess heat-related mortality, because one or two extreme days can be lost in the count”says the researcher.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Heat waves have caused the death of nearly 33,000 people in France since 2014
At the French level, for example, the Franco-Spanish team arrives at an estimate of 4,807 heat deaths over the period, while Public Health France recently released a figure of 6,969 heat-related deaths between June 1 and September 15, 2022. A significant discrepancy, which Mr. Achebak attributes to other methodological differences, but which he considers less significant in the other countries studied.
You have 47.4% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
#dead #Europe #summer