2023-07-28 15:46:19
Federal Health Minister Lauterbach on heat protection
“Our goal is to halve the number of deaths this year, i.e. to keep it below 4,000,” announced Lauterbach.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin With more heat protection in Germany, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to halve the number of heat deaths this year. Lauterbach said on Friday in Berlin that more than 8,000 people died from the heat nationwide last year. “Our goal is to halve the number of deaths this year, i.e. to keep it below 4,000,” he announced.
An evaluation by the Robert Koch Institute has shown that from mid-April to mid-July this year alone, 1,500 heat deaths can be expected in Germany.
The already announced heat protection plan of his house has now been passed. According to the SPD politician, the new concept includes various projects in cooperation with the public health service, general practitioners, hospitals, care facilities, municipalities and the federal states.
France is a role model. In August 2003, the country suffered from a severe heat wave that killed many people. According to the authorities, the excess mortality was almost 15,000 people for the first three weeks of August. To prevent this from happening again, the heat plan was drawn up, which was later replaced by an emergency plan against heat waves.
In Germany, the population is to be increasingly warned via public broadcasting. So he wrote to the public broadcasters together with Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens).
Close exchange with France
The goal: Information on heat protection and heat warnings should be anchored more in the news. Heat waves would be identified in advance by the German Weather Service.
Swimming pool
In the highest heat protection level, municipalities in France should facilitate access to swimming pools and beaches, distribute water or cancel physical education classes in schools.
(Photo: dpa)
“We are also in the process of issuing direct warnings for extreme heat situations,” said Lauterbach. This should be done via SMS messages and the official nationwide Nina-Warn-App.
When surveying the number of heat deaths, a comparison is made of how many more people die in weeks with high temperatures than in comparable weeks. The Barcelona Institute for Global Health had assumed more than 8,170 heat-related deaths in Germany in the summer of 2022. According to the survey, there were more than 60,000 across Europe.
They are also in close contact with the French authorities. There are four warning levels in the neighboring country. In the highest, municipalities should facilitate access to swimming pools and beaches, distribute water or cancel physical education in schools. The German heat protection plan now corresponds to 80 percent of what is also being done in France, said Lauterbach.
Risk groups include the elderly, pregnant women and the homeless
Germany’s general practitioners want to raise awareness among their patients about the need for heat protection. “What it’s all about is, in addition to creating awareness that heat can pose a health risk in various situations, that there is also an individual approach,” said the chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, Markus Beier.
According to Beier, for example, chronically ill elderly people often drink too little – partly because they believed that people with heart failure shouldn’t drink too much. Enlightenment is key here. According to the plans of the Federal Ministry of Health, there should also be separate remuneration for such consultations.
In addition to older people and the chronically ill, Lauterbach sees pregnant women and the homeless particularly affected by the rising heat. Lauterbach also referred to a new information portal in his company, with which municipalities in particular can find information on heat protection.
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