Number Of Heat-related Deaths Research Articles

Expanding the Duty to Rescue to Climate Migration

Expanding the Duty to Rescue to Climate Migration

Nurse Educators' Perceptions of Ecoliteracy in Undergraduate Nursing Education

Introduction: Increased human health concerns related to the natural environment and climate change are having a growing impact on nursing practice. This past year in Canada, for example, British Columbia reported the highest number of heat related deaths, followed by devasting forest fires in many provinces that have disproportionately impacted Indigenous Peoples. Nurses are well positioned to address the direct health impacts associated with climate change. As a result, nurses require an increased level of ecoliteracy to address the health impacts linked to climate change. The role of the nurse in addressing the health impacts of climate change are vast, ranging from direct patient care, education and advocacy, their role includes supporting individuals, communities, and populations to mitigate, adapt and build resiliency in the face of a changing climate. Background: Regulatory and professional associations support the professional emphasis on the significance of ecoliteracy yet there is insufficient understanding of the resistance to the content in nursing curricula. Although current literature supports an increased emphasis on the integration of ecosystem health concerns and the impact on human health within undergraduate nursing education, there is a paucity of empirical evidence regarding nursing educators’ perspectives on the subject. This study is a first step in gaining a greater understanding of the perspectives of nurse educators on ecoliteracy within undergraduate nursing education programs in one Canadian province. Methods: This qualitative research study included 13 nurse educators from three diverse academic settings. Data were collected using semi-structured, open-ended interview questions, followed by content analysis of the data. Results: Data analysis revealed five key themes: 1) Importance of ecoliteracy in undergraduate nursing programs; 2) Current integration of ecoliteracy concepts in curricula; 3) Future considerations for ecoliteracy content; 4) Barriers to the inclusion of content supportive of ecoliteracy in curricula; 5) Strategies to address barriers. While educators feel that ecoliteracy is important in undergraduate nursing, they noted that the current integration of climate content in the curriculum is uneven. Barriers and potential strategies to integrating this content are identified. Conclusion: The findings of this study can be used for curriculum revision and to stimulate innovation and research in nursing education. This study creates the opportunity for a larger scale replication study, pilot studies of the integration of concepts that would support ecoliteracy, and further research on the topic. This study identified that many complexities are involved in achieving ecoliteracy in nursing education and suggest that while threading of content can address the urgent need, further research is required to identify entry to practice requirements for undergraduate nursing programs.

Extreme heat and mortality rates in Las Vegas, Nevada: inter-annual variations and thresholds

Hourly temperature and dew point from Las Vegas were collected and used to estimate the heat index and excess heat factor. The indices were used with data of heat-related deaths to assess the effect of extreme heat on the population. The trends of the heat indices were analyzed for 2007–2016, and the correlation between heat wave episodes and the number of heat-related deaths was estimated. Both indices showed a clear increase over the last ten years in the severity and number of heat wave events per year. The number of heat wave episodes increased, while their duration decreased. The number of heat-related deaths was also found to increase, with 2016 having the highest number of heat-related deaths. For the period, 437 heat-related deaths were registered in Las Vegas. The most vulnerable subpopulation was people over 50 years old, for which 76% of the heat-related deaths were associated with preexisting heart disease.

Evaluation of the health-risk reduction potential of countermeasures to urban heat islands

Traditional assessment of heat-related health risks neglects the influence of the building physics as outdoor conditions are used as predictor variables. Data on heat-related mortality from Berlin, Germany and from the US are evaluated with a risk concept which differentiates between outdoor and indoor hazards. Such, the influence of non-linear building physics on heat-related risks can be considered and the impact of adaptation strategies can be examined.The number of heat-related deaths in the age-group 65+ for Berlin is expected to double with each 1K increase in ambient temperature. It can be reduced by 50% with a mean ambient air-temperature reduction of 0.8K. Countermeasures to urban heat islands are evaluated according to their reduction potential on hazards, both indoors and outdoors. The analysis shows that classic UHI countermeasures, which are effective in reducing air-temperatures outdoors, do not necessarily reduce the indoor hazard. Regarding indoor heat-related hazards, trees, façade and roof greening, cool roofs and cool pavements have a low impact only. Measures at the building level, namely cool roofs and façade greening perform best, however, passive cooling and air-conditioning are most effective. To reduce the number of excess deaths in a changing climate, combined measures are necessary.

Heat-related mortality in a warming climate: projections for 12 U.S. cities.

Heat is among the deadliest weather-related phenomena in the United States, and the number of heat-related deaths may increase under a changing climate, particularly in urban areas. Regional adaptation planning is unfortunately often limited by the lack of quantitative information on potential future health responses. This study presents an assessment of the future impacts of climate change on heat-related mortality in 12 cities using 16 global climate models, driven by two scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions. Although the magnitude of the projected heat effects was found to differ across time, cities, climate models and greenhouse pollution emissions scenarios, climate change was projected to result in increases in heat-related fatalities over time throughout the 21st century in all of the 12 cities included in this study. The increase was more substantial under the high emission pathway, highlighting the potential benefits to public health of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly 200,000 heat-related deaths are projected to occur in the 12 cities by the end of the century due to climate warming, over 22,000 of which could be avoided if we follow a low GHG emission pathway. The presented estimates can be of value to local decision makers and stakeholders interested in developing strategies to reduce these impacts and building climate change resilience.

Avoided heat-related mortality through climate adaptation strategies in three US cities.

Heat-related mortality in US cities is expected to more than double by the mid-to-late 21st century. Rising heat exposure in cities is projected to result from: 1) climate forcings from changing global atmospheric composition; and 2) local land surface characteristics responsible for the urban heat island effect. The extent to which heat management strategies designed to lessen the urban heat island effect could offset future heat-related mortality remains unexplored in the literature. Using coupled global and regional climate models with a human health effects model, we estimate changes in the number of heat-related deaths in 2050 resulting from modifications to vegetative cover and surface albedo across three climatically and demographically diverse US metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Georgia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Phoenix, Arizona. Employing separate health impact functions for average warm season and heat wave conditions in 2050, we find combinations of vegetation and albedo enhancement to offset projected increases in heat-related mortality by 40 to 99% across the three metropolitan regions. These results demonstrate the potential for extensive land surface changes in cities to provide adaptive benefits to urban populations at risk for rising heat exposure with climate change.

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HEAT RELATED MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY IN EUROPE

Background and Aims: Public health concerns about the health effects of extreme temperatures have risen because of the intense heatwaves of 2003 and 2006 in Europe. Climate change projections indicate that average temperatures are rising and that the intensity, frequency, and duration of extreme heat events will increase. As a part of the Climate-TRAP project we used emission scenarios, models and epidemiological data to assess heat related health impacts under a changing climate. Methods: Gridded climate data were obtained as a 50x50km grid for Europe using two global climate models (HADCM3 and ECHAM4) regionally downscaled over Europe with the RCA3. Modelled temperature and humidity data for the time periods 1961-1990 and 2021-2050 was used to represent the recent and future climatic conditions. Data for the A1B and A2 greenhouse gas emission scenarios (modelled with HADCM3 and ECHAM4 respectively) were used to illustrate possible outcomes for different climate scenarios. We used exposure response functions determined for a number of European cities within the PHEWE-project. Results: Future temperatures are predicted to increase the expected annual mortality for Europe in 2021-2050 compared to 1961–1990 by 1.15% and 1.28% for the A1B and the A2 scenarios, respectively. The increase differs between countries, with a range from no increase in heat-related mortality for the Baltic countries to increases above 3% for Spain, Slovenia and Portugal. For hospital admissions, the expected increase is substantially lower than the estimations for mortality with increases ranging up to 0.66% in Spain. Conclusions: This study suggest that the expected annual increase in heat related mortality in 2021-2050 compared to 1961– 1990 in Europe is in the same order of magnitude as the excess number of heat related deaths during the 2003 heatwave over Europe.