Heat’s a killer, study says

A recent study by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health claims overall increases in heat-related deaths should be expected by the year 2050.

According to Science Daily, densely populated areas will have more deaths than less-urbanized regions, with an estimated 47 percent to 95 percent rise in metropolitan New York from the 1990s. The report suggests warming trends by mid-century will increase the region’s annual average temperatures by 2.5 degrees to 6.5 degrees, with summer temperatures heating up by as many as 7.6 degrees.

Senior citizens, especially those with cardiovascular or respiratory illnesses, will be most vulnerable to the heat. One of the study’s authors says the predictions are conservative because they did not take future population growth into account.