Globally, the impact of extreme temperature on human health will be mitigated if effective measures are taken by governments and key stakeholders.
As the global community contends with even hotter weather in a changing climate, there is a pressing need to better understand the most effective prevention and response measures, particularly in low-resource settings.
On 20 August 2021, the Lancet Series on Heat and Health was published featuring two articles that integrate knowledge from a variety of disciplines including epidemiology, physiology, medicine, climate science, built environment and sustainable development, with contributions from 15 authors from 8 countries spanning 4 continents.
The executive summary of this series states:
Hot weather and heat extremes harm human health, with poverty, ageing, and chronic illnesses as aggravating factors. As the global community contends with even hotter weather in a changing climate, there is a pressing need to better understand the most effective prevention and response measures, particularly in low-resource settings.
In this two-paper series, the physiological, social, and environmental factors that contribute to individual heat vulnerability, and the megatrends affecting future heat-related morbidity and mortality at the population level, are comprehensively reviewed. Solutions to address the physiological heat strain that underlies the negative health effects of heat extremes and hot weather, which can be employed across a range of settings at individual, building, and landscape scales, are presented.
A webinar
On the occasion of this publication, the university of Sidney, Australia, organized a webinar. Along with an opening address by Lancet consulting editor, Dr Selina Lo, Professor Kristie Ebi and Professor Ollie Jay presented on the papers, which synthesise the latest evidence and provide recommendations to improve public health responses during heatwaves, and to support sustainable human adaptation to extreme heat.
The webinar also included a discussion between experts:
- Prof. Karen C. Seto, Yale University
- Prof. Virginia Murray, Public Health England
- Dr Rupa Kumar Kolli, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
- Associate Professor Carolyn Broderick, Chief Medical Officer, Tennis Australia
See the original post on University of Sidney’s website.
