France says 1,500 died in summer's heat wave

heat
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

France's health minister says 1,500 people died in this summer's heat wave in France—but a campaign of public awareness saved many lives.

Agnes Buzyn, speaking on France Inter radio Sunday, said there were over 1,000 more deaths that the annual average for the time of the year, and half of those were aged over 75. She said there were 18 days of recorded in France this year during June and July.

She noted, however, that it represented many fewer deaths than the scorching heat wave in 2003 that claimed 15,000 lives.

She said: "We have succeeded—thanks to prevention, thanks to workable messages the French population heeded—to reduce fatalities by a factor of 10."

© 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Citation: France says 1,500 died in summer's heat wave (2019, September 8) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2019-09-france-died-summer.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Alerts issued in France as intense heat wave envelops Europe

98 shares

Feedback to editors