More than 9,000 heat deaths were among people aged 65+, EuroMOMO data showed
\n london
\nEuropean countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed.
\nThe vast majority \u2014 more \u200bthan 9,000 \u2014 were among people aged 65 and above, according to data published by \u200cEuro MOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.
\nExtreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most \u200bvulnerable.
\n\u201cTo have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It\u2019s \u200breally high,\u201d Lasse Vestergaard, Chief Physician at Denmark\u2019s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters.
\n\u201cIt is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme \u200bheat,\u201d Vestergaard added.
\nScientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been \u201cvirtually impossible\u201d without human-caused climate change, \u200bwhich is making heatwaves more frequent and intense.
\nThe data, pooled from national mortality statistics in 27 European countries, included excess deaths from all causes, not just heat-related ones, during the week of June 22 to 28, when \u200bthe heatwave peaked in France, Spain, Britain and other countries.
\nBut scientists said there were no other \u200bknown major factors, such as COVID-19 outbreaks, that would have contributed to the spike to 10,650 excess deaths in that week.
\nJump in excess mortality during Western Europe\u2019s June heatwave
\nTotal weekly reported deaths in 27 European countries
\nThe \u200csame European countries\u2019 combined mortality over the previous eight weeks was, on average, around 500 deaths per week below typical levels. The EuroMOMO data could be revised in future weeks as more data comes in.
\nThe extreme heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature \u200brecords in France, Spain \u200band the UK.
\nEuroMOMO does not publish excess deaths per individual country, but it noted that France and Belgium were the only two countries in Europe to log \u201cvery high \u200bexcess\u201d mortality in the last week of June.
\nBelgium\u2019s excess mortality was the \u200bhighest during any heatwave in records going back to 2000, according to the country\u2019s public health institute Sciensano.
\nA separate scientific study, published on Monday, estimated 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone, during the \u200bMay and June heatwaves.
\nOf those deaths, 42% were caused by \u200bthe extra heat that global warming contributed to the heatwaves, according to the findings by Imperial College London, the UK \u200bMet Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 9,000 heat deaths were among people aged 65+, EuroMOMO data showed london European countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed. The vast majority \u2014 more \u200bthan 9,000 \u2014 were among people aged 65 and above, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n