Short term increases in mortality during heatwaves

Abstract

COMPARISON of the weekly death registrations in Greater London¹ with temperatures at the London Weather Centre during the summer of 1975 shows a temporary increase in mortality that coincides with the heatwave of late July to mid-August (Fig. 1). There was also an increase in death registrations in the first week of June, when there was a change from cold weather with a little snow to very warm weather (but these figures may have been slightly inflated by increased delays in registration following a public holiday in the previous week). Increases in mortality associated with heatwaves have been widely reported in North America, although there is some evidence that the pattern there may have been modified by air conditioning^2–5. Little attention has been drawn to such episodes in England and Wales, although an association between deaths from cerebral infarction and temperature in summer has been reported⁶.