Climate change | Heat protection is not a private matter

Public drinking water fountains are a start, but more needs to be done to combat the effects of heat. Photo: AFP/MARTIN LELIEVRE Europe's heat deaths this summer: The new figures from British researchers refer to cities. The 50,000 people would certainly have died "anyway" at some point - but not this summer, when temperatures in the last days of June, for example, were five degrees above average. And they didn't always die directly on a hot day, as is reported in medicine and emergency care.

These deaths include older people who did not realize that they had not consumed enough fluids. Patients who continued to take their diuretics, which are often prescribed for high blood pressure. But not every case affected people who were previously ill. Construction workers who had toiled outdoors all day also died hours later as a result of heat stroke. The event is somewhat complex and cannot be reduced to the rule of thumb “Drink enough!”

The effects of heat clearly show how the principle of “health in all policy areas” should work. The necessary measures must be implemented systematically; crumbs of information here and there are not enough. It's about climate protection for hospitals and nursing homes. To provide resources for care services that still need time for additional care during the hot season. About urban planning with cool places and sufficiently large green spaces as well as free access to these places. And last but not least, stricter occupational safety for everyone. And consideration should be given to those professions in which people continue to have to be cared for and rescued even during heat periods.

Anyone who actually wants to prevent heat deaths cannot cling to fossil raw materials and pretend that combustion engines and gas heating have no alternative. Even if the topic of heat protection is relatively politically orphaned, at least the facts are still getting through and no one can say they didn't know it.

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