New Delhi: Europe is estimated to have registered more than 60,000 deaths attributed to heat in the summer of 2022, a new research published in the journal Nature Medicine said.
The 2022 summer was the hottest one ever to be recorded in the region and was characterised by an intense series of record-breaking heat waves, droughts and forest fires.
While unusually high excess mortality was reported for that period by the European statistical office (Eurostat), this research, led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Spain, in collaboration with the French National Institute of Health (Inserm), quantified the fraction of that mortality attributable to heat.
"We estimated 61,672 heat-related deaths in Europe between May 30 and September 4, 2022", the researchers said.
Among the countries, Italy reported 18,010 deaths, Spain 11,324 and Germany saw a total of 8,173 heat related deaths, they said.
"Relative to population, we estimated 56% more heat-related deaths in women than men, with higher rates in men aged 0–64 (+41%) and 65–79 (+14%) years, and in women aged 80+ years (+27%)", they said. "Our results call for a reevaluation and strengthening of existing heat surveillance platforms, prevention plans and long-term adaptation strategies", the researchers said.
"Relative to population, we estimated 56% more heat-related deaths in women than men, with higher rates in men aged 0–64 (+41%) and 65–79 (+14%) years, and in women aged 80+ years (+27%)", they said.
"Our results call for a reevaluation and strengthening of existing heat surveillance platforms, prevention plans and long-term adaptation strategies", the researchers said.
The summer of 2022 also witnessed widespread excessive ozone levels, making the air of Delhi-NCR more toxic, while other metros are not far behind.
Heat waves continue to wreak havoc across the world with the first week of the on-going month July 2023 being the hottest ever when the highest temperature rose to record high three times in eight days.
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