UK News 27-08-2003 Heatwave Claimed 1,000 Lives who: Office for National Statistics what: Says August heatwave may have cost an extra 900 lives when: Yesterday snippet: "Record temperatures during the recent heatwave may have claimed up to 1,000 lives in Britain," reports The Scotsman this morning. "During the week ending 15 August, when the mercury topped 100F for the first time, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded 907 more deaths compared with the average for the last five years." "The total number of deaths rose from 9,073 in the last week of July to 10,132 in the second week of August, suggesting that the high temperatures could have contributed to as many as one in ten deaths," says The Independent, although reporters Jeremy Laurance and Victoria Bone caution readers that death rates "normally fluctuate from week to week by up to 500". The Department of Health concedes that there was an increased demand in some areas of the south east during the hot weather but, says a spokesman quoted in The Guardian, "we did not see any hospitals unable to cope". The hot weather death toll is not unique to Britain. "The situation was far worse in France, where thousands of pensioners were estimated to have died during the heatwave there," says The Evening Standard`s website, thisislondon.com. "French undertakers said more than 10,000 may have died during the hot weather, although a definitive figure is not expected for weeks." "In Holland, officials say that for every degree above normal summer temperatures there have been 25 extra deaths a week," says The Telegraph. "In Spain, there were reports that in Madrid the number of deaths in the month to Aug 15 was almost 400 higher than in the same period last year." [... more]

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