Extreme heat

This literature review, initiated at the request of the Table de concertation nationale en santé environnementale (TCNSE), aims to identify groups at risk during heat events and the adaptation measures proposed by other government agencies and in the scientific literature in order to:

• Recommend, if necessary, the adjustment of risk groups already targeted by the MSSS or the addition of new groups.
• Recommend, if necessary, the adjustment of adaptation measures currently recommended by the MSSS or the addition of new measures.

• Recommend, if necessary, the adjustment of heat adaptation measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

• Average temperatures as well as the intensity and frequency of heat waves will continue to increase due to climate change. This puts public health at risk.
• The purpose of this literature review is to update the information contained in the 2006 Ministère de la Santé…

This study on the relationship between summer temperatures and worker health in five Canadian provinces has produced new knowledge that can guide decision-makers and prevention stakeholders. Drawing on workers’ compensation claims data from Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as meteorological data, the study revealed that:

• For every 1°C increase in the daily maximum summer temperature for the 2001-2016 period, there was a 28% to 51% increase in the daily number of accepted heat illness claims (e.g. edema, syncope, exhaustion, sunstroke/heatstroke), depending on the province and the heat exposure indicator used; applied to the province of Quebec, a 34% increase (model based on T_max) represents seven additional accepted heat illness claims over the five summer months of each year of the 2001-2016 period.
• No sex- or age-based disparities were observed in relation to the heat illness risk examined. In Quebec and Alberta, where…

Since the 2010 summer season, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) has been producing an annual report on the impact of extreme heat waves on the health of the population, using the Fichier hebdomadaire des décès of the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ). The main purpose of this study is to verify the validity of this data source. The study also aims to measure the impact of age, material deprivation, and the presence of urban heat islands on the frequency of deaths during extreme heat waves.

A useful monitoring tool

• The validity of data from the Fichier hebdomadaire des décès was assessed by comparing the impacts of the 2010 and 2011 heat waves with those obtained using the Registre des évènements démographiques (RED).
• The results indicate that the Fichier hebdomadaire des décès systematically underestimates the impacts of heat waves. To remedy this problem, it is suggested that more permissiv…

Weather warning systems are among the main policy tools used by public authorities to protect the population from vagaries in the weather. More particularly, weather warning systems are implemented so that the government can monitor weather conditions and issue warnings when extreme weather events, such as heat waves, cold waves, heavy rainfall, etc., threaten the population. As is the case in all public interventions, it is important to analyze the performance of these systems, in order to evaluate their contribution to the population's safety and well-being.

In this report, a guide for evaluating warning systems for people vulnerable to heat and smog is presented. It is intended for managers and evaluators of these systems. It provides them with an analytical framework and methods for evaluating their relevance, implementation and impacts.

The guide proposes that relevance analysis must address the need for warning systems for people vulnerable to heat and smog. Mo…