EXHAUSTION

Exposure to heat and air pollution in Europe – cardiopulmonary impacts and benefits of mitigation and adaptation

Apr 12

Written By Ubåt

Exposure to heat and air pollution in Europe – cardiopulmonary impacts and benefits of mitigation and adaptation

Summary

Extreme heat is a key climate change risk in Europe in the near and long term. Accelerated global warming increases the likelihood of both heat waves and wildfires. Extreme heat increases rates of death and disease from heart and lung disease, whereas wildfires can cause severe air pollution. The health effects of extreme heat are interlinked with air pollution in several ways. Air pollution is currently the largest environmental killer in Europe, causing ~500,000 premature deaths annually.

Reducing the increase in heart and lung diseases which comes with an ageing European population can be obtained with preventative measures and will substantially impact society by saving healthcare costs and improve quality-of-life through reduce suffering for many people.

By combining the exposure projections and the exposure-response relationships, EXHAUSTION quantifies the future exacerbation of heart and lung disease in Europe and attributes the change in mortality from heart and lung disease to a changing climate. EXHAUSTION aims at identifying adaptation strategies that will help avoid premature death and disease among vulnerable groups. This includes older people, infants, the chronically ill, and disadvantaged people. The project also estimates the costs of the increased vulnerability to heart and lung diseases, and what the variations in costs are dependent on.

Research partners

CICERO (lead); University of Oslo; Norwegian Institute of Public Health; Aarhus University; Helmholtz Zentrum München; Universidade do Porto-Faculdade de Letras; Administratia Nationala de Meteorologie; University of Athens; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Luxembourgh Institute of Socio-Eco-nomic Research; Department of Epidemiology ASL Roma 1; Finnish Meteorological Institute; InfodesignLAB; DRAXIS