Continued from Page 1

Climate change has been extending the heat season across much of the United States, increasing both the frequency and intensity of heat waves. Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the US, even though heat-related illnesses and deaths are largely preventable through outreach and intervention, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found heat-related mortality rates in the United States increased between 1999 and 2023, especially during the last seven years. But the true number of heat-related deaths is probably still being underestimated, the authors wrote, due to potential misclassification of causes of death and a lack of data on vulnerable populations. — AFP