Many recent studies assume that elderly people are at particular risk of dying from extreme heat as the planet warms.
Many recent studies assume that elderly people are at particular risk of dying from extreme heat as the planet warms. A new study of mortality in Mexico turns this assumption on its head: it shows that 75% of heat-related deaths are occurring among people under 35―a large percentage of them ages 18 to 35, or the very group that one might expect to be most resistant to heat.
“It’s a surprise. These are physiologically the most robust people in the population,” said study coauthor Jeffrey Shrader of the Center for Environmental Economics and Policy, an affiliate of Columbia University’s Climate School. “I would love to know why this is so.” The research appears this week in the journal Science Advances.
The researchers chose Mexico for the study because it collects highly granular geographical data on both mortality and daily temperatures. The researchers reached their conclusions by correlating excess mortality―that is, the number of deaths above or below the average―with temperatures on the so-called wet-bulb scale, which measures the magnified effects of heat when combined with humidity.
Read More: Columbia Climate School
Farmworkers in northern Mexico harvest lettuce. Heat mortality among young adults across the nation is high, probably in part because they are the ones most apt to do manual labor. (Photo Credit: Charles O’Rear/U.S. National Archives)
