Heat-Related Deaths in Europe: A 2023 Overview
In 2023, a staggering over 47,000 Europeans succumbed to heat-related ailments, marking this year as the hottest recorded in history, according to a comprehensive report published in Nature Medicine. However, experts suggest that this figure could have been dramatically higher.
Without the implementation of effective heat adaptation strategies over the last twenty years, the mortality rate associated with the extreme temperatures experienced by Europeans could have surged by an alarming 80 percent, as indicated by the study. This prediction is particularly concerning for the elderly population, as the death toll among individuals over the age of 80 could have potentially doubled.
The measures that contributed to mitigating the heat’s impact include:
- Advancements in healthcare practices
- Wider accessibility to air-conditioning systems
- Enhanced public information campaigns that encouraged people to stay indoors and maintain hydration during extreme heat events
Elisa Gallo, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, a nonprofit research organization, emphasized the importance of recognizing climate change as a significant health issue. Gallo stated, “We need to consider climate change as a health issue. We still have thousands of deaths caused by heat every year, so we still have to work a lot and we have to work faster.”
It is important to note that accurately counting deaths attributable to extreme heat is a complex challenge. One of the primary obstacles is that death certificates often do not accurately reflect the influence of heat on mortality. The study utilized publicly accessible death records from 35 countries, provided by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, which covers approximately 543 million Europeans.
