Performance of heat-health warning systems in Shanghai evaluated by using local heat-related illness data.

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    • Source:
      Publisher: Elsevier Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 0330500 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1879-1026 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00489697 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Sci Total Environ Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: Amsterdam, Elsevier.
    • Subject Terms:
      Heat Stress Disorders* ; Hot Temperature* ; Weather*; China ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Morbidity
    • Abstract:
      In response to more frequent heatwaves, various regional or national heat-health warning systems (HHWSs) have been developed recently as adaptation measures. A wide range of methodologies have been utilized to issue warnings, as there is no universal definition of "heat event" or "heatwave", nor are there quantified thresholds of human-health tolerance to extreme weather. The performance of these warning systems has rarely been evaluated with actual heat-health data, especially the morbidity data, in regions with severe impact. In this study, we assessed the performance of the Shanghai HHWS based on heat-related illness data collected by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and then conducted a comparative analysis among the Shanghai HHWS, the China Meteorological Administration HHWS, the Chinese national standard for heatwave indexes, the heat index adopted by the USA's National Weather Service and the definition suggested by the World Meteorological Organization to understand their potential performance for application in Shanghai and to evaluate the temperature thresholds and different meteorological indices employed. The results show that: 1) during the research period, 50% of heat-related illnesses and 58.2% of heat-related deaths in Shanghai occurred on dates that had no heat warnings; 2) for the current threshold (35 °C), the single metric of temperature outperformed the temperature-duration two-parameter method; 3) different from existing studies, while infants and seniors are deemed as vulnerable population groups to heat, young and middle-aged males were found to suffer more heat-related illnesses in hot weather. More detailed analyses reveal that the performance of heat-health warning systems needs to be evaluated and revised periodically, and warning thresholds utilized must be localized to reflect public tolerance to heat and to address the vulnerability of target population groups. Temperature is the dominant threshold in heat-related morbidity and mortality analysis. While a decrease in the temperature threshold would definitely increase the warning frequency and socioeconomic costs, it might also cause warning fatigue. The trade-off between these two aspects is essential for decision-makers and other stakeholders in HHWS design and improvement.
      Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
      (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: Heat-health warning system; Heatwave; Shanghai; Temperature thresholds
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20200202 Date Completed: 20200403 Latest Revision: 20200403
    • Publication Date:
      20240829
    • Accession Number:
      10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136883
    • Accession Number:
      32006779