The cold still kills much more than the hot: nearly 4.6 million deaths each year in the world for the first, 490,000 for the second, according to a study published in July in the
Lancet Planetary Health
.
But as global warming takes its toll, the relationship could reverse, even in temperate countries, and heat kills more and more.
But not just any heat...
50°C measured in Pakistan, 47°C in India… The figures are impressive, but not exceptional.
And in themselves, they do not say much about the dangerousness of the observed heat waves.
Because there is a lack of essential data, that of the humidity of the air.
But
"it is enough for the humidity to change a little bit for it to become a disaster
," explains Professor Laurent Grelot, physiologist at the University of Aix-Marseille.
At 36°C ambient temperature and 30% humidity, the thermal stress for the organism is the same as at 28°C and 85% humidity.”
See also
India helpless in the face of a historic heat wave
Explanations: to keep…
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