Beating the heat: Development and evaluation of a Canadian hot weather health-response plan
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Date
2001-12Author
Smoyer-Tomic, KE
Rainham, Daniel Gareth Charles
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An increasing number of cities subject to hazardous summer weather in the United States and Canada have began to develop and implement hot weather response plans to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths. In this study we focus on heat-mortality relationships in Toronto, Ontario, between 1980 and 1996 and evaluate the potential effectiveness of the city's interim hot weather-health response plan. Using two heat stress indexes-humidex and apparent temperature-we identified excess mortality associated with hot and humid weather and then estimated excess deaths for hot and cool summers. Mortality rates for all ages and for > 64 years age groups rose with increasing humidex and apparent temperature, with no significant increase for the population
Citation
Smoyer-Tomic, KE, and DGC Rainham. 2001. "Beating the heat: Development and evaluation of a Canadian hot weather health-response plan ." Environmental health perspectives 109(12): 1241-1248. Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives