Working-age bodies are not heatproof: illness and deaths climb with every extra degree
Across 138 studies of adults aged 15 to 64, every 1°C of additional heat came with 2.3% more illness and 1.6% more deaths, and heatwaves pushed illness up 5.3% and deaths up 3.8%. The heaviest toll fell in lower-income countries, with heat-related illnesses and genitourinary disorders showing the strongest associations.
For you: Worth knowing that heat risk is not just a pensioner problem; if you work or train through heatwaves at working age, the risk curve includes you.
What it shows: Take the direction seriously and the exact percentages loosely: this pools 138 studies that followed people through hot weather rather than testing anything, so heat is linked to harm rather than proven to cause it, and the studies disagreed with each other a lot. Risks were bigger in lower-income countries, so the global averages may overstate the danger in cooler, richer places.Meta-analysis · Environ Int