It was long suspected that the killer winters in America does a lot of harm to the population. But for the first time, this has been proved statistically by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) which is a part of Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report states conclusively that “about 2,000 U.S. residents died each year from weather-related causes of death.” Among these numbers, 63% die due to hypothermia, excessive cold climate or a combination of both. 31% of deaths happen because of excessive heat, sun stroke, heat stroke or a combination of both. The remaining 6% of deaths happen due to natural calamities like severe storms, floods, lightning, hurricanes or tornadoes.
Jennifer Parker, who is the special projects chief at the National Center for Health Statistics and co-author of the report, said that “This is the first report from the National Center for Health Statistics to focus on weather-related death by place of residence.” The report was compiled after studying the death certificates of citizens, and deaths where weather as a cause was included.
The report saw that deaths due to winter related causes were prevalent in the rural West, with heat related deaths in the West and South areas. It was also seen that deaths were high in areas that were mostly rural or most urbanized.
It was also seen that blacks who are non Hispanic and men especially elderly men were more susceptible than other ages, races and women. These weather related deaths may increase because of global warming, the increasing age of America citizens and urban areas attracting more people.