Geneva, Sept 30. (Redazione/Adnkronos/GNA/GNA) – A 63% increase in heat-related deaths” globally dating from the 90s has been estimated.
This is characterised by an average of 546,000 deaths per year in the period between 2012 and 2021.
A particularly risky context is “large gatherings such as major sporting, religious, and cultural events”, during which “heat-related disorders have become a significant danger both for public health and from an operational perspective, involving spectators, participants, volunteers, and staff”.
Studies published between 1980 and 2025 document “almost half a million health interventions during large gatherings, including over 22,000 heat-associated cases”.
They indicate that, “when on-site healthcare systems are well organized, over 90% of patients can be treated directly at the event venue, significantly reducing the pressure on hospitals and ambulance services”. These are the data released today by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has published “new guidelines to prevent heat-related disorders at large gatherings”.
“Extreme heat represents a growing threat to health, safety, and operational continuity during large gatherings”, and “must be addressed not only as an environmental risk, but as a fundamental challenge of operational management and governance,” says Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. “
Protection, he warns, cannot depend solely on individual behaviour. “By strengthening consistency in risk assessment, preparedness, and response, we can reduce immediate harm and promote safer, more resilient event planning in a warming world”.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says extreme heat events, including heatwaves, have become more frequent and intense in most land regions since the 1950s, mainly due to climate change”.
For the future, “a further increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events is expected with every additional increment of global warming”.
In this context, “large gatherings can amplify heat-related risks in several ways. long periods spent outdoors with exposure to heat and sun, dense crowds, limited access to safe water, travel stress, unfamiliarity with local climatic conditions, and concurrent pressure on health services can combine to create dangerous situations”. Hence the WHO guidelines, which “address spectators, participants, volunteers, and workers” and “integrate guidance on ‘heat and health’ action plans, as well as existing national plans on the matter, occupational health and safety requirements, emergency preparedness procedures, and clinical guidelines”
To secure large gatherings from the dangers of increasing heat, WHO emphasizes “the importance of investing in preparedness and response measures before temperatures reach dangerous levels. The most effective approaches, it describes, combine several measures, including: access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities; cooling infrastructure; changes to activity scheduling; crowd management; protective measures for workers; public communication; real-time surveillance; adequately organized on-site medical services”.
The new guidelines promote “an approach that considers the event in its entirety, recognizing that factors such as venue configuration, crowd management, water and sanitation services, transport, security, communications, and personnel management affect access to cooling systems, safe water, and timely medical assistance”.
The WHO guidelines cover the entire event cycle and “should be integrated into broader emergency preparedness and multi-hazard management strategies”.
The Geneva-based agency invites governments, event organizers, and partners to “integrate heat-related risk management into health planning, preparedness, and operations for large events worldwide”.
GNA