High heat is preferentially killing the young, not the old, research finds

[Still Waters]

Many recent studies assume that elderly people are at particular risk of dying from extreme heat as the planet warms. A new study of mortality in Mexico turns this assumption on its head: it shows that 75% of heat-related deaths are occurring among people under 35―a large percentage of them ages 18 to 35, or the very group that one might expect to be most resistant to heat.

"It's a surprise. These are physiologically the most robust people in the population," said study co-author Jeffrey Shrader of the Center for Environmental Economics and Policy, an affiliate of Columbia University's Climate School. "I would love to know why this is so."

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-high-preferentially-young.html