‘Heatwave death threat soars for elderly’

PARIS: More than 150 million vulnerable people worldwide were exposed to potentially life-threatening heatwaves last year, scientists said on Thursday, warning that climate change posed an unprecedented global health risk.

In a worldwide stocktake of public health trends, dozens of international agencies said people over 65, those living in large cities, and sufferers of heart and lung disease were all at heightened risk of death or disability from extreme heat.

The warning came as the United Nations’ meteorological body said that the last four years including 2018 were the four warmest on record. Globally, a total of 153 billion work hours were lost due to heat exposure in 2017, including seven percent of all labour time in India, the authors said, adding that the cost of keeping people safe from heatwaves was likely to balloon as our planet warms.