Athens among cities with rising heat deaths

Summers successful Europe are nary longer benign, with vigor and recurring heatwaves linked to soaring wellness problems and rising deaths, researchers say. A caller investigation shows that heat-related deaths tripled crossed Europe this summertime compared with a script without clime change, with Athens among the hardest hit.

The study, conducted by Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, examined 854 European cities. It recovered 24,400 deaths attributed to utmost vigor from June done August 2025. Of those, 16,500 – oregon 68 percent – were deemed avoidable successful the lack of clime change.

In Greece, 808 deaths were recorded, including 630 successful Athens alone. Researchers said Rome, Athens and Bucharest had the highest excess mortality rates among European capitals. “The main crushed Athens ranks 2nd is the precocious temperatures observed this year,” said Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, lecturer successful biostatistics and epidemiology astatine Imperial College London. He cited further risks such arsenic precocious aerial pollution, constricted greenish spaces and debased nationalist awareness.

Across 14 Greek cities, the interaction varied. Patra  recorded 39 excess deaths, while Katerini had the highest percent of deaths linked to clime change. Thessaloniki reported 59 heat-related deaths, 43 of them attributed to clime change. High impacts were besides noted successful Hania and Kalamata.

Older radical were the astir vulnerable. Those aged 65 and supra accounted for 85 percent of excess deaths. Researchers warned that warmer summers will progressively endanger Europe’s aging population, while besides worsening chronic illnesses and straining workers successful construction, transport and tourism.

The Balkan heatwave of precocious July, paired with destructive wildfires, was associated with the highest regular risks, averaging 10 excess deaths per cardinal radical implicit a week.

“Human-induced clime alteration is liable for astir of the excess deaths owed to precocious temperatures successful 14 Greek cities this past summer,” Konstantinoudis said. “These information intelligibly amusement that our biology decisions person a nonstop interaction connected people’s lives.”

Researchers added that adjacent a 2°C warming script could exposure 163 cardinal Europeans to unprecedented summertime heat, astir treble today’s figure.