DO HEATWAVES KILL?
Extreme heat this summer really did cause a spike in deaths, new analysis shows
THIS summer was one of the hottest on record - and it had deadly consequences. That’s according to a new analysis from the Office for National Statistics.
The report looked at whether a spike in temperature was causing a rise in the number of deaths.
The analysis revealed that the average temperature between June and August this year was 16.1°C.
One hundred years earlier in 1919, however, the average summer temperature was 14.3°C.
The ONS analysis mapped the number of deaths registered each day between May and August.
The highest number was recorded on July 25th, when 1,473 people died.
That was a rise from the daily average of 1,236 deaths recorded across the four months.
Just three days earlier, the NHS had issued a level three heatwave health watch alert - which is when the Met Office confirms heatwave temperatures will be experienced in at least one region.
The NHS also warned that hot weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable people - including pensioners aged 75 and over, babies and young children and those with serious long-term conditions.
A further spike of deaths was recorded alongside the second heatwave warning issued at the end of August.
The ONS does note that because it can often take a long time for deaths to be recorded officially, the true number of heatrelated deaths is likely to increase.
Because of this, they also looked at the number of deaths occurring in the summer of 2018, when there were an average 1,296 deaths each day.
Four heatwave warnings were issued last summer.
The first was between June 25-27, the second was between June 30 and July 10, the third was between July 21-29 and the fourth between August 1-9. Across that 32day period, 22 of the days saw a higher-than-average number of deaths recorded.
A comment issued alongside the report found that: “At a daily level, extreme heat seems to have an impact on the number of deaths, but across the summer period as a whole the number of deaths is similar to previous years.
“This could be because the most vulnerable people, for example, those with pre-existing respiratory or cerebrovascular diseases are more susceptible to death during heatwaves.”
Despite this, the number of deaths recorded during winter months remains consistently higher than in summer.
Overall there were 117,934 deaths in summer last year - compared with 155,712 in the winter months.