3 ms·
Even today this happens in highly developed countries where AC is not common. A 2003 heat wave in killed 20,000 people in France, Spain and Portugal, in additio
by hyperbovine 9y ago
Even today this happens in highly developed countries where AC is not common. A 2003 heat wave in killed 20,000 people in France, Spain and Portugal, in addition to tens of thousands more related deaths in the years that followed.
- volkk 9y agoafter a quick wikipedia read, it seems the number is as high as 70,000 (although this is across all of europe). insane. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave
- Someone 9y agoThat number looks worse than it is. Many of the deaths were elderly people who already were of poor health, and would not have lived for long if that heat wave hadn't occurred. A way to show that is true is by looking at the death rate shortly _after_ that heat wave; it is slightly lower than expected. If you want to compare this number with e.g. car accidents, it would be better to count QALY's lost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year), rather than deaths.