2023-07-17 08:31:54
The measures to protect the population are insufficient, according to the researchers. Of the 35 countries analyzed, only Italy had more deaths than Spain due to high temperatures
More than 11,000 people died in Spain and 61,000 across Europe from heat in the summer of 2022, according to research by the Institut de Salut Global de Barcelona (ISGlobal). Its authors warn that the current measures to protect the population from high temperatures are insufficient.
81% of deaths triggered by heat in Spain last summer were registered in people over 80 years of age, who constitute the age group most vulnerable to high temperatures. But there were also 796 deaths (7% of the total) in children under 65. People with cardiovascular or respiratory diseases, as well as those who are socially isolated, are the ones with the highest risk of dying during a heat wave, says the study, published yesterday in Nature Medicine.
“There is a lack of awareness about the risks associated with heat,” says Joan Ballester, a specialist in the relationship between climate and health at ISGlobal, who led the research. “Many people in fragile health die in summer without being aware that the factor that has triggered death is the heat.”
The 11,324 deaths attributed to heat in Spain in 2022 exceed the annual deaths from pancreatic cancer (7,663 in 2021, according to data from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology), breast (6,614) or prostate (5,889). The countries of southern Europe are those that register the most deaths due to heat, confirms the study, based on Eurostat data of 543 million inhabitants of 35 countries. “Mortality also increases when it is cold, but we do not see an opposite pattern with higher figures in northern countries; the Scandinavian countries are better prepared for the cold than the Mediterranean ones for the heat”, notes Ballester. Spain was the third European country with the highest mortality due to heat in 2022 (with 237 deaths per million inhabitants), only behind Italy (295) and Greece (280). In absolute numbers, it was the second with the most deaths (11,324), after Italy (18,010).
One in five deaths registered in Europe took place in the week of July 18-24, coinciding with the most intense heat wave.
Although the summer of 2022 was the hottest recorded to date in Europe, “the temperatures were not exceptional, in the sense that they could have been foreseen”, since they followed the same trend of increasing temperatures of the last ten years, point out the researchers in Nature Medicine. “Our results suggest that adaptation efforts have been insufficient [y] highlight the urgent need to reassess and strengthen strategies.”
If new measures to adapt to the increase in temperatures are not adopted, annual heat deaths in Europe will exceed 68,000 in 2030, 94,000 in 2040 and 120,000 in 2050, according to the authors of the study, in which Nine scientific institutions from Spain, France and Switzerland have participated.
The new measures “should start with those that can achieve greater effectiveness in a faster and more affordable way,” says Ballester. “For example, you could take a census of people most vulnerable to heat, such as older people living alone, and actively monitor them during episodes of extreme heat.”
Unlike younger and healthier people who can seek shelter in cool places during heat waves, people who have difficulty moving around independently are more vulnerable to high temperatures.
Along the same lines, Ballester proposes improving warning systems for heat waves. Instead of being based solely on meteorological criteria as up to now, they could be done in a more personalized way based on the age, sex, state of health or place of residence of citizens.
In the longer term, the researcher proposes architectural and urban actions to adapt homes and cities to warming resulting from climate change.
Europe, the researchers recall, is the continent where the thermometers have risen the most since the pre-industrial era. The increase in temperatures has been almost one degree higher in Europe than that registered in the world as a whole. J. Corbella
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