EWM: Excess Winter Mortality

Cold weather kills more than hot weather.

Kepart et al. looked weather-related mortality in 326 Latin American cities between 2002 and 2015. Heat-related deaths were 0.7% while cold-related ones were 5.1%, more than seven times greater.

City-level impact of extreme temperatures and mortality in Latin America
www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01872-6

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Kepart et al. looked weather-related mortality in 326 Latin American cities between 2002 and 2015. Heat-related deaths were 0.7% while cold-related ones were 5.1%, more than seven times greater.

Both heat and cold can result in excess deaths. Gasparrini et al. looked at the causes of death in England and Wales over a 20-year period (2000-2019). They found there were 791 deaths attributable to heat and 60,573 attributable to cold.

The authors write “Our analysis indicates that the excess in mortality attributable to cold was almost two orders of magnitude higher than the excess in mortality attributable to heat.”

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519622001383

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Masselot et al. looked a mortality records in 854 urban areas in Europe over a 20-year period (2000-2019). They found 20K deaths attributable to heat and 204K deaths attributable to cold.

Excess mortality attributed to heat and cold: a health impact assessment study in 854 cities in Europe
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(23)00023-2/fulltext

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