In recent decades, climate heating has already strengthened thermal waves in Europe. Further development is also well documented: climatic models predict that thermal waves, as these days, will be new “normal” in Germany in the second half of our century. And with this, health risks associated with these temperatures.
“27 ways in which the thermal wave can kill you,” the essays, which American doctors published in 2017, headed a lot. In it, they describe those physiological mechanisms through which high temperatures become fatal traps. “A person is more susceptible to heat than most people think,” said the chief author of Camilo Mora from the University of Hawaii.
Darks, old and children are especially at risk, but young, healthy people can also be at risk of life in the extreme heat. In view of this, according to the sea, “it is noteworthy of humanity indifference to the dangers of a progressive climate change.”
With humidity, even drinking does not help
In fact, in Germany there are already more heat than the victims of the road: the Robert Koch Institute estimated its number over the past two years to 3000, while last year there are 2780 traffic accidents.
Whether it is running, thinking or sleep: we, people, are thermal machines, our metabolism generates energy that we can dissolve only 30 degrees throughout the flow: this requires a functioning cardiovascular system, healthy buds, intact lungs and a large amount of water.
A healthy person can lose up to one liter of liquid per hour. Without replenishment, the blood thickens, the brain is worse, dizziness, speech disorders and an indefinite gait. If the lack of water remains, the kidneys fail, the body is poisoned – death is inevitable.
But even drinking does not help when the air is moist: with high humidity, our environment is already saturated with water, it is unlikely to absorb. Sweat on the surface of the body no longer evaporates, emergency cooling fails. Heat cramps, heat creation, heat collapse, heating, heating. “I am powerless against the heat,” says Andreas Matsarakis, who headed the Center for Medical Research by the German meteorological service in Freibur until March 2024.
Since 1951, the number of days has increased by 170 percent with more than 30 degrees in Germany. Tropical nights in which the temperature does not drop below 20 degrees also increase. According to the German meteorological service, Germany is now 2.5 degrees warmer than before industrialization. Even with an immediate stop of all greenhouse gas emissions, thermal waves in Europe are becoming more and more common, as the study of the University of Hamburg has just shown.
In France, you can register the need
“There is no awareness of the problem,” says Henny Annie Grew from the Public Health Center Fulda. In 2003, about 70,000 people died in central and Western Europe from the heat. But Germany is unlikely to get the consequences from this. “In principle, it is known what to do,” says Grue.
Fragile, disoriented or crazy people need care and sufficient liquid. Zannova – Can – very Mersoe – do not remove heat over the part of the body that lies on the mattress. Older people often live alone, and social isolation turned out to be a special risk factor in many studies.
In France, old and sick people can register so that they can be careful during heat waves. In Germany, there are only some of such offers, such as telephone services in Kassel and Cologne. “People who should live in overheated apartments should be able to find relaxation, at least, a clock of cool places,” says Grew. But it requires staff and money. “Although there are currently in many municipalities, often there is not enough money in an emergency.”
In the long run, you must transform the cities, explains Grewe. Huge glass facades are still being built, which guarantee that buildings can be heated especially strongly. “We need more green, especially in tightly sealed areas. We need fresh air rods that supply cities with cooler air from the outside. We need another architecture, it is still too often built with the experience of the cold winter. ”
But not only old and sick are affected. At the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Qatar, 28 Marathon runners collapsed in the starting field. It was 32.7 degrees at a moisture content of 73.3 percent. A study conducted from Frankfurt/Main showed that rescue operations in the hot summer increase to 17 percent.
For entire professional groups, heat becomes a test. “It is easier to protect yourself from the cold than from the heat,” says the master -master based on Cologne, based on Cologne, Martin Weihsweiler. In the heat of the summer of 2018 and 2019, he had to send his employees home at noon – black bitumen roofs heated to 70 degrees. Not only health suffers from such conditions, but it is hardly possible to process building materials.
Winter was the most difficult time for construction trade, today the Bau Bau Berlin-Brandenburg’s specialized community is calling to expand short short money before the summer months. In the coming days, leaders of cranes, street workers, police officers or firefighters will also suffer: the latter can hardly remove their isolated protective clothing, if used. (with DPA)
