;Resize=(1200,627)&impolicy=perceptual&quality=mediumHigh&hash=d32dc7973046b36d746669b7f6aaca4699cf82cc90a4c1513d35f4708628b708 "France has been showing us how to protect ourselves from the heat for 20 years")
In order to arm Germany against potentially deadly heat waves, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to draw up a protection plan. This is also necessary: Similar to the Corona crisis, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) publishes a weekly report on “heat mortality”. According to the RKI, 1,510 people in Germany had already died as a result of the heat by mid-July.
Lauterbach’s view of the SPD politician falls on neighboring France, where such a heat protection plan has been in place for almost twenty years. What is Lauterbach aiming for, how exactly does the French concept work and what has it achieved?
France’s four-step plan
In August 2003, France suffered from a severe heat wave that killed many people. According to the authorities, the excess mortality was almost 15,000 people for the first three weeks of August. To prevent this from happening again, the heat plan was drawn up, which was later replaced by an emergency plan against heat waves.
The heat and health warning system is ramped up every year in June and until mid-September. The system is controlled by the health authority Santé Publique and the national weather service Météo France and has four warning levels. The first warning level is a kind of basic level that applies throughout the summer. It states that bio-meteorological data is collected and evaluated. Because Corsica is used to more heat than Brittany, different limit values for the warning levels apply locally. The warnings can be viewed online and are updated in the morning and afternoon.
Die second level of warning is a kind of intermediate stage. Here, local limit temperatures are either briefly exceeded or the temperature has been high for a long period of time, but is still below the limit values. Affected areas are shown in yellow on the warning map, actors are mobilized and the issuing of tips to the population is increased.
School closed, free swimming pool
If the local limit values are reached three days and nights in a row, the responsible prefects solve the third level of warning out of. In addition to older people, small children and the disabled, all those who are particularly exposed to the heat, for example because they are homeless or work in the sun, are also considered at risk. Which protective measures actually take effect varies from place to place.
The highest warning level, extreme heat, applies when the entire population in an area is considered to be at risk, for example because the heat lasts particularly long, is particularly strong or prevails over a particularly large area. The level is only announced together with the Ministry of Health. Municipalities should then facilitate access to swimming pools and beaches through free entry or longer opening hours, distribute water or cancel physical education classes in schools. Sporting events can be canceled and schools can be closed.
Register for risk groups
As soon as there is a first heat wave in France, a telephone hotline will also be launched. People can ask their questions here during the day free of charge and get health tips for particularly hot days. In addition, the authorities use posters and share pics to explain good behavior in the heat.
Elderly and disabled people living at home can register on a municipal register to receive support during heat waves. Those on the list will be regularly contacted by local authorities during a heat alert, reminded of tips to avoid dehydration and offered help where needed. If someone from the register doesn’t answer the phone and the authorities are concerned, they can also send the police over to check on the people.
Thousands of lives saved
While around 15,000 people died from the heat during the severe heat wave in 2003, the heat waves that followed in France were less deadly, according to the Ministry of Health. According to this, the excess mortality during the 2006 heat wave was 2,100 people, in 2015 around 1,700 people and during the three heat waves in 2020 a total of around 1,900 people. Last summer, the hottest summer in Europe since records began, around 4,800 people died in France due to the heat, according to a report by a research team in the journal Nature Medicine.