Study shows that the black population is the most affected by heat waves

In a study on heat-related deaths in urban areas in Brazil, researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the Fiocruz Climate and Health Observatory and the University of Lisbon showed that the increase in mortality is greater among black and brown people than among white people. "There are still some researchers who question environmental racism, but we already have evidence that, yes, the most vulnerable populations are the most impacted by climate change," says Renata Gracie, coordinator of the Climate and Health Observatory and collaborator on the study.

Published earlier this year in the journal PLoS ONE, the study Twenty-first-century demographic and social inequalities of heat-related deaths in Brazilian urban areas to 2018 and found that this pattern persisted across all 14 Metropolitan Regions studied, which collectively account for 35% of the country's current population. In the regions of Belém, Recife, Brasília and São Paulo, the mortality rate for black and brown people aged 65 and over (1.33 - 2.30) was statistically higher than for white people (1.16 - 1.44).

Heat waves are a type of event resulting from climate change. Difficult to detect, especially in Brazil and Latin America, since there is no tradition of this type of study, they can cause great harm. Europe and Japan recorded several deaths in 2003, a period of intense heat waves. These countries have carried out this type of monitoring since then. "The importance of this study is that, for the first time, we have been able to outline the periods of heat waves in Brazilian metropolitan regions," says the researcher. In addition to the racial context, an increase in heat-related deaths was observed for people with a low level of education, the elderly and women.

This knowledge is essential, especially for the black population. In a country where black and brown people are the ones who most often live without proper access to essential services such as sanitation, security and decent housing, climate change, added to social injustice and environmental racism, further increases the vulnerability of this population to environmental risks.

For the researchers, given the intensified heat waves, it is necessary to link the strengthening of primary health care with the reduction of socioeconomic, racial and gender inequalities in order to change this mortality scenario.