© Watts Up with That
Science is a wonderful thing. As time moves on, in a single direction, Science, as an endeavor, discovers new things and improves our lives.
With a "hat tip" to the inestimable
Jane Brody, health journalist at the
NY Times who covers the story
here, we are reminded of
the study [free .pdf] from Antonio Gasparrini
et al. which was published in
The Lancet, July 25, 2015, with the [way too long] title:
"Mortality risk attributable to high and low ambient temperature: a multicountry observational study".The bottom-line finding, the take home message, might surprise even readers here at WUWT, quoted in the side-bar of the journal article:
Interpretation:
We report that non-optimum ambient temperature is responsible for substantial excess in mortality, with important differences between countries. Although most previous research has focused on heat-related effects, most of the attributable deaths were caused by cold temperatures.
Despite the attention given to extreme weather events, most of the effect happened on moderately hot and moderately cold days, especially moderately cold days. This evidence is important for improvements to public health policies aimed at prevention of temperature-related health consequences, and provides a platform to extend predictions on future effects in climate-change scenarios. [extra emphasis mine - kh]
Comment: From January 2014: