Heat stress is probably the most obvious thing people think of when the idea of global warming comes up. A heat wave in Europe during the summer of 2003 killed more than 10,000 people in France alone. Many of the dead were elderly; the group most likely to live alone and most susceptible to heat-related health problems. Other climatic effects are more subtle, but no less deadly. Higher rates of ground-level ozone are a major respiratory irritant, and vector-borne diseases thrive in warmer temperatures. And that's the problem that's keeping New York City's public health officials up nights. In the summer of 1999—the hottest and driest in a century—62 cases of West Nile encephalitis were reported in New York, and seven people died (see "Beyond the Bite," Your Health, November/December 2003). A general health warning was issued, and city residents began to get used to helicopters overhead spraying clouds of malathion and pyrethriod pesticides.
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