The World Health Organisation has warned the current scorchers are just a “dress rehearsal” for future record-bakers and they’ll keep on coming
Brits face a future of booze bans and hiding in libraries to escape growing killer heatwaves, health chiefs warned. Builders could also be paid furlough not to work due to deadly 40C temperatures, which will become the norm.
The World Health Organisation has warned the current scorchers are just a “dress rehearsal” for future record-bakers. It said Europe has lost 200,000 people from the roasting conditions in the past four years.
And it urged the UK to have an urgent action plan that can include limits on boozing in the heat, “climate shelters” in libraries and government cash to protect brickies.
The WHO said: “This heatwave is a dress rehearsal. The summers ahead will be harder. More than half of European countries still do not have a comprehensive heat-health action plan in place. “That needs to change.”
It added: “Europe is warming at more than twice the global average. Heatwaves are no longer one-off freak events. They are recurring crises, and they are getting more frequent, stronger and lasting longer.
“Every summer we fail to prepare for them is a summer we pay for in lives.”
The WHO also urged people to keep blinds and curtains closed during the day to block heat out. And open windows at night and glug more water while shunning sugary, alcoholic or caffeine drinks.
It comes after shock figures showed around 60% of hospital admissions in Europe during last week’s heatwave involved people aged 75 and older.
London’s Ambulance Service saw its busiest day on record on last Friday, taking 8,869 emergency calls in a single day.
The WHO added: “Estimates show that heat-related deaths in Europe in 2023 would have been around 80% higher without the adaptation measures already in place.
“For people aged 80 or above, deaths could have been twice as high. Heat-health action plans, early warnings, cooling spaces, outreach to vulnerable people – these are not bureaucratic exercises.
“They are saving lives right now – we need more of them, across all of the European Region.”