Lancet: ‘Climate change here and it kills’

New diseases are spreading, the hayfever season is starting earlier, and even the hours in which it is possible to practise sports are changing.

The common denominator behind all these and other changes to human health is climate change.

A new report in the Lancet has found that warming temperatures in Europe have far-reaching impacts on health. It tracks the links between climate change and health across the region, exploring 42 indicators.

As scorching summers hit the continent, heat-related deaths per 100,000 people have increased by 30.8 per cent from the period 2003-12 and 2013-22, according to the report.

Now 68 people per 100,000 are estimated to die of heat-related issues, up from 50.8.

“Climate change is here, in Europe, and it kills,” the 2024 Europe Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change said.

From raging wildfires in Greece to near-record high river flows in major basins, including the Rhine and Danube, 2023 saw a record number of days with “extreme heat stress”, according to the World Health Organisation.

In 2022, which also saw extreme heat, upwards of 70,000 people in Europe were killed during the summer months.

The Lancet report found that Southern Europe tends to be more affected by heat-related illnesses, wildfires, food insecurity and drought.

It also said that Southern Europe is also “more vulnerable” to climatic suitability for various climatesensitive pathogens and disease vectors.

Populations of bacterium Vibrio and ticks, which can spread diseases like Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis, are “on the rise across Europe”. Vibrio is a “flesh-eating” bacterial infection that thrives in warm sea waters. People become infected by swimming in the sea with open wounds or through the consumption of infected oysters and other shellfish. Other threats include West Nile virus, dengue, chikungunya, Zika, malaria and leishmaniasis.

Regular physical activity could also be in jeopardy. Risky hours for exercise have been expanding into hours beyond the hottest part of the day over time for both medium, such as cycling, football, and tennis, and strenuous, such as rugby or mountain biking, activities.

Comparing 2012-22 to 1990-2000, the mean annual risky hours per person for moderate intensity activities falling outside the hottest four hours of the day increased by 107 per cent in eastern Europe, 382 per cent in northern, 94 per cent in southern and 101 per cent in western.

The warming climate could be bad news for hayfever sufferers. The start and end date of the pollen season is shifting and becoming longer in length. Allergenic pollen is “substantially affected” by weather conditions, with climate change leading to “systematic shifts” in flowering seasons of most plants, the Lancet said.

The report concluded that a lack of political action to protect people from climate change is one of the biggest issues facing Europe.