10,000 Excess Deaths During June European Heatwave, Official Data Show

Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times,

More than 10,000 excess deaths were reported across Europe during the recent heatwave that baked the west of the continent in late June, official data showed on June 13.

More than 9,000 of those who passed away were aged 65 and above, according to European Monitoring of Excess Mortality for Public Health Action (EuroMOMO), a continent-wide mortality monitoring network backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The 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 the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, the UK, and other countries.

Though the deaths cannot be attributed exclusively to the soaring temperatures, scientists have said there were no other known major factors, such as disease outbreaks, that would likely have contributed to the mortality spike during that week.

Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable, according to the WHO.

"To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It's really high," Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, said. "It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat."

The combined mortality for the same 27 nations over the previous eight weeks averaged around 500 deaths per week below typical levels; however, EuroMOMO data is subject to revision, either up or down, as more data flow in over the coming weeks.

EuroMOMO does not publish excess deaths per individual country, but it noted that France and Belgium both logged "very high excess" mortality in the last week of June. Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands noted "moderate excess," England, Wales, Italy, and Germany registered a "low excess" of deaths, and the remaining 17 showed normal levels.

The heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature records in France, Spain, and the UK.

Belgium's excess mortality was the highest during any heatwave in records going back to 2000, according to the country's public health institute Sciensano.

"Our latest analysis shows that 1,747 more people died than expected during this heatwave, corresponding to an excess mortality of 48 percent," Sciensano said in a July 10 LinkedIn post. "The deadliest days, 27 and 28 June, recorded mortality levels comparable to those observed during the peak of the first COVID-19 wave in April 2020."

During the heatwave, France experienced its hottest ever national average days on June 24 and June 25, with both days recording an average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) over 24 hours, surpassing the previous record set on June 23 of 29.8 degrees Celcisus (85.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to French weather agency Meteo-France.

That average is calculated using figures from 30 weather stations evenly distributed across the country.

According to Meteo-France, the highest temperature recorded in France was 46 degrees Celsius (about 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit) at Verargues on June 19, 2019.

In another scientific study from the UK - by Imperial College London, the UK Met Office, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine - it was estimated that some 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone, amid the May and June heatwaves.

A 2007 study by the French Academy of Sciences on the 2003 European heatwave found that more than 70,000 excess deaths occurred across 16 countries that year.

American political scientist Roger Pielke Jr. has said that the increase in deaths in Europe in previous years is attributable to the lack of air conditioning across the continent.

"The math is simple," Pielke Jr., who has previously worked at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado, Boulder, wrote in a June 25 post on Substack, discussing the deaths in the European heatwave of 2022.

"Today's heat deaths reflect today's level of AC coverage. Raise the coverage, and a share of those deaths are eliminated - in proportion to how protective AC is and how many more households gain it."

Pilke stated that if Europe had American levels of air conditioning penetration during that period, deaths would have been reduced by as much as 26,000.