Organisation
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism / Impact on Urban Health / University of Glasgow
Theme
Adaptation
Start Date
Aug 2023
End Date
Sept 2023
Goals
Heat
In the summer of 2023, journalists from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism worked with South London residents to try and understand how rising temperatures are affecting our health, and the extent to which housing exacerbates the impact.
Measures taken to achieve goals
Working with local residents, journalists from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism fitted 40 sensors in participants’ homes. These sensors collected data on temperature, humidity and air quality every minute of the day and at the end of the research period, they were sent to the University of Glasgow’s Urban Big Data Centre for analysis. The journalists were in touch with the participants throughout the project, gathering more qualitative information on how the summer months were affecting their health and wellbeing in their homes.
80% of participants said the heat at home was affecting their physical and mental health
The research revealed that people in London are already suffering from the effects of rising temperatures, highlighting the need to accelerate action on climate adaptation.
Despite the research taking place during a relatively mild summer, every home monitored went above the 25C, which is the World Health Organisation’s maximum recommended indoor temperature for London. In one home, the temperature exceeded this threshold for over three weeks consecutively, including at night. Some homes in the investigation were 10C hotter inside during the night than outside throughout the monitoring period.
Prolonged exposure to high indoor temperatures can cause a range of health complications. During the one hot week of the monitoring period, 80% of participants said the heat at home was affecting their physical and mental health. A number of residents, independently of each other, described their homes as a “sauna”, “greenhouse”, “heat chamber” or “oven”.
Above certain thresholds, heat can cause health issues for anyone, but excess heat doesn’t affect everyone equally and in fact exacerbates existing health inequalities. Overheating in London homes is not a future risk. It is a current and growing problem, as this study has served to further demonstrate. Investing in the solutions to build resilience is a matter of climate justice and health equity.
