Older and sick people in cities are particularly stressed and threatened by heat waves that are becoming more frequent. You could protect them by going to middle altitudes, explains Innsbruck sports scientist Martin Burtscher. He refers to previous studies that showed that the death rate in the Alps is lower at altitudes between 1000 and 2500 meters, probably also due to the lower temperatures.
In his commentary in the journal The Lancet, the expert in altitude medicine, performance physiology and metabolism refers to a study published earlier this year in the same medium on the impact of green infrastructure in cities. Spanish researchers showed that heat islands in cities lead to a higher death rate. However, this effect can be slowed down by more greening with trees. Increasing a city’s tree-covered area to 30 percent would reduce temperatures in the settlement by an average of 0.4 degrees Celsius, which would reduce premature deaths by 1.8 percent.
“This effect agrees surprisingly well with the reduction in mortality from living at moderate altitudes reported from the Alps, where ambient temperatures drop by about 6.5 degrees Celsius for every 1,000 meters of altitude difference,” Burtscher writes. It is interesting to note that the reduction in mortality observed in previous studies with increasing altitude “corresponds quite closely to what would be expected from cooler summer temperatures in cities”.
Height determining
In concrete terms, Burtscher refers to a somewhat older study by Swiss colleagues, according to which there is 22 percent less mortality from coronary heart disease in Switzerland for every 1000 meters of altitude (up to an altitude of around 2000 metres). The sports scientist himself showed two years ago with colleagues that in Austria at altitudes between 1000 and 2500 meters the general mortality rate is about 20 percent lower than in areas below 250 meters above sea level. In addition to the lower temperatures, this is probably also due to beneficial effects such as less exposure to allergens and dust.
Burtscher emphasized that greening cities is a good long-term strategy to counter the health consequences of heat waves. “In the short term, however, moving to mid-altitudes may be useful, especially in Austria, to protect vulnerable people during heat waves.”
Source: Krone
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