A key aspect of the EXHAUSTION project is to study the impact on health (from hospitalization to mortality) resulting from air pollution and heat stress.
“We knew from previous studies that there is an increased risk of heart and lung disease and death associated with heat exposure in the warm season. New research from EXHAUSTION shows that the risk is enhanced when people are exposed to high levels of air pollution at the same time,” says senior scientist Alexandra Schneider from Helmholtz Munich.
In this video she explains more about these key results from EXHAUSTION.
“On days when we have heat and at the same time a high level of air pollution, we observe much higher effects on mortality and hospital admissions caused by heart disease or lung disease”, she says.
She also has a key message for policy.
“If we reduce air pollution, then the heat effect on health will also be much lower”, she concludes.