According to new estimates by scientists from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain, human losses due to extreme heat in European countries in the summer of 2022 were almost 8 thousand lives higher than previous estimates. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
The study’s authors revised estimates that last year’s heat wave caused 62,862 premature deaths in 35 European countries. According to updated data, more than 70,066 thousand Europeans have become victims of climate disaster.
To develop the theoretical framework, the research team collected data on daily temperatures and deaths from 147 sites in 16 EU countries. They then analyzed and compared heat- and cold-related mortality estimates at different aggregation levels: daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly.
The analysis revealed differences in epidemiological estimates depending on the time scale. It has been determined that especially weekly, bi-weekly and monthly models underestimate the effects of hot and cold compared to the daily model, and the degree of underestimation increases with the length of the collection period.
“It is important to note that the differences were very small during periods of extreme cold and heat, such as the summer of 2003, when the model predicted weekly data of only 4.62%,” said Joan Ballester Claramunt, one of the authors of the study.
Previous scientists sort ofHe said that the 2022 summer heat in Europe caused more than 61 thousand premature deaths.
Source: Gazeta
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