The potential impacts of climate variability and change on temperature-related morbidity and mortality in the United States.

By M. Mcgeehin, M. Mirabelli. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2001

744 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Heat and heat waves are projected to increase in severity and frequency with increasing global mean temperatures. Studies in urban areas show an association between increases in mortality and increases in heat, measured by maximum or minimum temperature, heat index, and sometimes, other weather conditions. Health effects associated with exposure to extreme and prolonged heat appear to be related to environmental temperatures above those to which the population is accustomed. Models of weather-mortality relationships indicate that populations in northeastern and midwestern U.S. cities are likely to experience the greatest number of illnesses and deaths in response to changes in summer temperature. Physiologic and behavioral adaptations may reduce morbidity and mortality. Within heat-sensitive regions, urban populations are the most vulnerable to adverse heat-related health outcomes. The elderly, young children, the poor, and people who are bedridden or are on certain medications are at particular risk. Heat-related illnesses and deaths are largely preventable through behavioral adaptations, including the use of air conditioning and increased fluid intake. Overall death rates are higher in winter than in summer, and it is possible that milder winters could reduce deaths in winter months. However, the relationship between winter weather and mortality is difficult to interpret. Other adaptation measures include heat emergency plans, warning systems, and illness management plans. Research is needed to identify critical weather parameters, the associations between heat and nonfatal illnesses, the evaluation of implemented heat response plans, and the effectiveness of urban design in reducing heat retention.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/02001c5075f219f397b0532588afa03228b17056

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In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

1. A. Zanobetti
2. A. Braga
3. S. Hajat
4. R. Kovats
5. K. Lachowycz
6. Jasmine Schwartz
7. B. Mitchell
8. Olga V. Wilhelmi

In Physiology

1. B. Festy

Citations in the corpus

• The Urban Forest and Ecosystem Services: Impacts on Urban Water, Heat, and Pollution Cycles at the Tree, Street, and City Scale. (2016, neutral): “Another serious environmental and human health challenge facing our urban centers is the nexus between the urban heat island, summer heat waves, and a gradually warming global climate (Hamin and Gurran, 2009; McGeehin and Mirabelli, 2001).”
• Scale-dependent interactions between tree canopy cover and impervious surfaces reduce daytime urban heat during summer (2019, background): “Reduction of heat at night is particularly important from a health perspective, as high overnight temperatures contribute significantly to heat-related illness and mortality (32, 33), as the body has no opportunity to recover from daytime heat exposure.”
• The effect of weather on respiratory and cardiovascular deaths in 12 U.S. cities. (2002, background): “Temperature has been recognized as a physical agent able to induce health effects (1,2,24).”
• Climate change and natural disasters: macroeconomic performance and distributional impacts (2009, background): “While the elderly and very young are physiologically more vulnerable to natural disasters, they are more socially vulnerable as well (McGeehin and Mirabelli 2001; Blaikie et al. 1994; Scheraga and Grambsch 1998; Ngo 2001).”
• Progress in heat watch-warning system technology (2004, background): “As these systems are based on the synoptic meth- AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY DECEMBER 2004 BAITS" I 1909 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 05/29/22 07:24 AM UTC odology, and its assumption that the population responds to all weather variables concomitantly, the initial method of analysis involves the”
• Connecting people and place: a new framework for reducing urban vulnerability to extreme heat (2010, background): “…et al 2007), provide epidemiological information about heat-related morbidity and mortality (Yip et al 2008), develop heat preparedness plans (EPA 2006), and identify vulnerable groups within the population (Semenza et al 1996, McGeehin and Mirabelli 2001, O’Neill et al 2003, Uejio et al 2010).”
• Interactions between urban heat islands and heat waves (2018, neutral): “…climate has the potential to cause a substantial increase in human mortality (Anderson and Bell 2011, Huang et al 2011, Patz et al 2005), morbidity (McGeehin and Mirabelli 2001), energy demand (Isaac and van Vuuren 2009, Sailor and Pavlova 2003), and perhaps civil con-flicts (Burke et al 2009,…”
• Heat-related and cold-related deaths in England and Wales: who is at risk? (2006, background): “27 Other contextual characteristics that increase susceptibility to heat exposure are social isolation, 28 29 living in urban areas 30 and living on the top floors of buildings.”
• Landscapes of thermal inequity: disproportionate exposure to urban heat in the three largest US cities (2015, background): “The environmental justice concerns outlined in the previously discussed research have been expanded in recent work, but most heat-related studies focus on the US Southwest.”