Europe is seeing “devastating” rise in health harms from extreme weather events, experts warn

The number of adverse impacts on health related to extreme weather and climate events is continuing to rise in Europe, an EU report1 has found.The report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said that vulnerable groups, the public, and some healthcare providers are underestimating the potential risks from extreme heat, a situation that experts said needs to change.The report estimates that there were between 55 000 and 72 000 deaths because of heat waves in the summer of 2022, the most recent year for which data are available. It highlighted that in the past 20 years, heat related deaths have increased in 94% of European regions. In the period between 2000 and 2020, heat related mortality increased by around 30% in the World Health Organization’s European region, it added.Commenting on the data, Alan Dangour, director of climate and health at Wellcome, who was not involved with the report, said,…
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