Heat Mortality versus Cold Mortality

They kind of beat around the bush in this study because it is difficult to quantify information on this level because many deaths caused by heat or cold are not reported and those that are are often suspect around the world. But, the one graph that sort of answers this question is the one shown about what months the most people die in shows that the most people die in December, January, February and March of every year. And the least amount of people on average die in August. So, this likely means that older people get lung infections through pneumonia and other respiratory ailments from December through March here in the U.S. and die then. So, people who go to places like Florida, Arizona, California and other warmer places during the winters likely live longer.

Also, my friend who went to Japan was just amazed at how many old people were there. He had never seen anything like it anywhere else on earth. So, likely the veneration and respect paid to older persons in that culture allow people to live longer there than any other. For example, in the U.S. in our "Youth Culture" people often die from neglect or abuse that are over 60 or 70 here. However, if you are an American I'm not sure that going to Japan to live would increase your longevity unless you are of Japanese descent already.

If you click on the following button you can see this graph for yourselves as well as other graphs relating to heat and cold deaths here in the U.S.

 

heat mortality versus cold mortality - Department of Geosciences

geosciences.msstate.edu/faculty/dixon/reprints/2005bams.pdf‎

by PG DIXON - ‎2005 - ‎Cited by 17 - ‎Related articles

wave in Europe, weather-related mortality and the comparison of the various causes ... type: “Do more people die from heat than die from cold?” and even more ...

not surpass the locally established thresholds for an

excessive cold or heat event.

Storm Data

also consid-

ers deaths from snow- or ice-related traffic accidents

where exposure to excessive cold is not a factor in

the death to be indirectly caused by weather, and,

thus, they are not counted in the database. Therefore,

defined criteria for death by heat or cold must be

considered before data selection can begin.

Unfortunately, even with a well-defined standard

for classifying direct and indirect causes of death, it

is possible for problems to occur. There are several

instances in

Storm Data

where traffic-related deaths

were classified as directly caused by weather in con-

trast to the official guidelines. A random sample of

two months from early 1995 snow and ice deaths

shows that three deaths in January in Kentucky, two

in February in Pennsylvania, and six in February in

Texas were all from traffic accidents where exposure

to excessive cold was not a factor in the death. These

11 incorrectly labeled deaths ma ke up more than ha lf

of the total (17) snow-and-ice-related deaths during

January/February 1995.

Media reports.

Media accounts of heat- or cold-related

deaths are primarily comprised of mortality numbers

obtained from pertinent authorities and, given the

nature of the media, are obtained quickly after, or

even during, a given event. For example, the media-

reported mortality numbers during the Chicago,

Illinois, heat wave of 1995 were primarily made up

of daily reports from the Cook County Chief Medi-

cal Examiner. During that event, the media reported

daily heat-related death statistics (Table 2). In addi-

tion to medical examiners, the media also garnered

death statistics from personal interviews with local

funeral homes.

A common problem with the use of weather-relat-

ed death totals as reported in the media is that major

events are often underreported and rarely revised

after publication. Further, because the media use

county medical examiners as primary information

sources, it should be noted that a medical examiner

generally is involved only with deaths of an unk nown

cause or of a suspicious nature. Consequently, many

heat-related deaths are not sent for collaboration to

the medical examiner. Also, as with other methods,

media reports can be taken out of context and tend

to lack reliable evidence of direct or indirect causes of

death. See Changnon et al. (1996) for a comprehensive

discussion of media reporting on the Chicago 1995

heat wave.

COMPARISON OF DATABASES FOR HOT/

COLD DEATHS.

Compressed Mortality Index.

Us-

ing CDC NCHS’s compressed mortality database

during the 21-yr period of 1979–99 (the most recent

years for which national data are available), a total of

8015 deaths in the United States were heat related (Fig.

2). Of that total, 3829 (47.8%) were “due to weather

conditions,” while 3809 (47.5%) were “of unspecifi

ed

origin” and 377 (4.7%) were “of man-made origins”

(e.g., heat generated in vehicles, kitchens, boiler

rooms, furnace rooms, and factories) (Donoghue et

al. 2003; Sathyavagiswaran et al. 2001). Consequently,

the CDC NCHS dataset’s category of “excessive heat

resulting from weather conditions” creates an average

of 182 deaths per year.

Conversely, again using the compressed mortality

database during the 21-yr period of 1979–99, a total

of 13,970 deaths were attributed to hypothermia (ex-

cluding anthropogenic cold deaths) (Grey et al. 2002;

Mirchandani et al. 2003) (Fig. 2). In 1999, exposure

to excessive natural cold was listed as the underlying

T

ABLE

2. Total number of heat-related deaths

reported by the media (

Chicago Sun-Times

) for

the Chicago 1995 heat wave event.

Date

Total deaths

reported

13 Jul 1995 20

15 Jul 1995 56

16 Jul 1995 116

17 Jul 1995 179

18 Jul 1995 376

19 Jul 1995 402

20 Jul 1995 456

21 Jul 1995 457

22 Jul 1995 466

23 Jul 1995 468

25 Jul 1995 484

27 Jul 1995 529

3 Aug 1995 549

10 Aug 1995 562

30 Aug 1995 56

end partial quote from:

heat mortality versus cold mortality - Department of Geosciences

 I was doing Social Science Research at a Community College when I was in my 30s before I went to UCSC. What we found was that about 1/4 of the supposed registered students at the college were either dead or had moved away. This was kind of shocking until we considered the funding for the institution. So, it can be quite amazing the things you find out during different types of Research.