Human Discomfort Due To Environmental Conditions In Urban Thessaloniki, Greece. Part V. Adaptation To The Local Climate (Preliminary Results)

Heat stress-related mortality is among main impacts of climatic extremes on human society. An extreme heat wave can be catastrophic or not depending on its intensity, extent and duration, but also on the population adaptation to the local climate and the awareness of the public authorities. Excess monthly mortality was established, for total and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality, by calculating deviations of the observed number of deaths from an expected number of deaths (baseline mortality) for each summer month of the examined period. The net mortality change was clearly positive during the extended hot periods of the most severe heat waves. The aims of this study were to analyse mortality during heat waves in Northern Greece, separately for June, July and August, during the period 1970-2009, and to quantify a preliminary relationship between heat stress and excess mortality, taking into consideration the population adaptation to the local climate. There is a need to further improve public health responses to weather extremes and to heat-waves in particular that may result in a large excess of mortality in Greece.