It is the heat, not air pollution, that kills so many people in the summer

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Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 11 Oct 2005 - 18:00 PDT

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In Europe 27,000 people died in 2003 because of heat. A study carried out at University College London concluded that too many summer deaths are blamed on pollution when the culprit was, in fact, the heat.

The researchers said some people are not keeping themselves cool enough during heat waves. The longer the heat wave, the higher the death toll, they found.

You can read about this study in Environmental Research.

2,000 people died as a result of heat in the UK in 2003, more than four fifths of them were over 75.

The researchers found there was a distinct correlation between deaths of people over 65 and temperatures as they rose above 18 Centigrade (Celcius). Early summer heat waves brought on more deaths than heat waves later on in the season. The researchers said people are more used to higher temperatures later on and take better steps to keep themselves cool.

The researchers said the deaths that had been wrongly blamed on pollution had not had such factors as adjustment to heat later on in the summer, sunshine and wind taken into.

When it gets very hot ozone levels rise, as do particulates and sulphur dioxide. More than half the 27,000 deaths were wrongly deemed to have been caused by pollution.

In a nutshell, older people are more likely to die from the effects of heat than from pollution during a heat wave.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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