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Trapped in the oven of an extended heat wave, England calculates the damage
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059984915[font face=Serif][font size=5]Trapped in the oven of an extended heat wave, England calculates the damage[/font]
Erica Rex, E&E Europe correspondent
ClimateWire: Wednesday, July 24, 2013
[font size=3]LONDON -- In the Great Fire of 1666, a fire that began in a bakery and rapidly tore through a city of wooden buildings in overpopulated slums with open sewers flowing in the streets, it was easy to count the casualties: Four noblemen died. As for the 30,000 people who lived in the tenements that burned, no one kept track. The eventual solution was memorialized in "London's Burning," a song of the day: "Pour on water, more water!"
Figuring out a solution and calculating the death toll from the near-record heat wave that has broiled this city for the past few weeks are far from that simple.
Public health service estimates put the number of people who died here from heat-related causes July 6-14 at 650. The estimates were based on figures derived from epidemiological research published in 2011 in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which examined the heat-mortality association in England and Wales, along with daily regional temperature figures for the second week of this month.
Ben Armstrong, a professor in epidemiological statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who conducted the research, pointed out that although the numbers he provided are estimates, they are projections based on actual death statistics reported through local authorities between 1993 and 2006.
…[/font][/font]
Erica Rex, E&E Europe correspondent
ClimateWire: Wednesday, July 24, 2013
[font size=3]LONDON -- In the Great Fire of 1666, a fire that began in a bakery and rapidly tore through a city of wooden buildings in overpopulated slums with open sewers flowing in the streets, it was easy to count the casualties: Four noblemen died. As for the 30,000 people who lived in the tenements that burned, no one kept track. The eventual solution was memorialized in "London's Burning," a song of the day: "Pour on water, more water!"
Figuring out a solution and calculating the death toll from the near-record heat wave that has broiled this city for the past few weeks are far from that simple.
Public health service estimates put the number of people who died here from heat-related causes July 6-14 at 650. The estimates were based on figures derived from epidemiological research published in 2011 in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which examined the heat-mortality association in England and Wales, along with daily regional temperature figures for the second week of this month.
Ben Armstrong, a professor in epidemiological statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who conducted the research, pointed out that although the numbers he provided are estimates, they are projections based on actual death statistics reported through local authorities between 1993 and 2006.
…[/font][/font]
