By Madeline Baker, Times Chronicle
The 619 British Columbians that died during last year’s destructive and lethal heat dome died for a myriad of reasons which are a “failure of the way that we live, not the health system,” said the B.C. Coroners Service chief medical officer with the release of the Service’s report.
Although seemingly a distant memory given the current unseasonably cool June temperatures, just over a year ago in late-June much of the province was hit with record temperatures including Osoyoos which hit a historical high of 40.1 Celsius.
The coroner’s service had earlier convened a 22-member panel including doctors and other medical professionals, municipal directors and policy experts, advocates for at-risk populations, disaster and emergency response directors, and other relevant professionals to look into the increased mortality rate between June 25 – July 1, 2021.
The panel found that seniors over 70 years of age, particularly with pre-existing chronic health conditions, were hit hardest by the high temperatures brought on by the heat dome.
Specific health conditions that appeared most often in victims of the heat dome included schizophrenia, substance use disorder, epilepsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, asthma, mood and anxiety disorders, and diabetes.
Additionally, people who lived alone made up over half of the heat-related deaths, and residents of socially or materially deprived neighbourhoods were also disproportionately represented in mortality numbers. Many of these people lived in homes without air conditioning or fans, which contributed to their risk.
The report also identifies what they call “a lag between the heat alerts issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and public agencies and the public response.” Emergency calls quickly overwhelmed 911, with 17 callers being put on hold for long periods of time and six being told no ambulance was available for them.
As a result of these findings, the panel has three primary recommendations for the provincial government: a coordinated heat alert and response system (HARS) to improve public awareness of upcoming heat events, a system of wellness checks and distribution of cooling devices for at-risk populations, and a long-term strategy for extreme heat prevention.
A live streamed press event on June 7 featuring Lisa Lapointe, B.C.’s chief coroner, and Dr. Jatinder (Taj) Baidwan, chief medical officer, followed the report’s release at 10 a.m. the same day. Baidwan’s focus was largely on changing the way residents of BC live on a collective level so that everyone can be better equipped to manage future heat events.
“People didn’t take [the heat dome] as seriously as we, perhaps, now think we should have taken it,” said Baidwan, “and we were all guilty of that. The people who died were people who, for a myriad of reasons, were overcome by the effects of extreme heat […] That’s a failure of the way that we live, not the health system.”
He pointed out that the primary environmental focus of everything in the province from alert systems to building codes has been to keep people well-heated and out of the cold, which has left the population ill-suited to self-manage or help others when heat levels become dangerous.
“Ensuring people have a way of staying cool, either inside their residence or elsewhere, and conducting informed checks to consult and work with them on their well-being and support needs,” were changes that he stated to be of the utmost importance.
Among the solutions discussed by Baidwan were changes to BC building codes that would place cooling on the same level of importance as heating, increasing shade and green space in urban areas to lower temperatures naturally, and constructing cooling areas in every community for people who were temporarily unable to cool their homes.
There was also talk of providing air conditioners to people from socially and materially disadvantaged areas, though Baidwan pointed out that too much reliance on active cooling over passive cooling would simply cause greater damage to the environment.
On a personal level, Baidwan encouraged the public to familiarize themselves with the symptoms of heat stroke and make plans to check in with their neighbours and loved ones in the event of future heat emergencies, which he said would help to “avoid eminently preventable loss of life.”
“We must recognize the threat that extreme heat poses for each of us and respond accordingly.”
While Baidwan could not guarantee that future heat emergencies would not result in further loss of life, he was optimistic that the panel’s findings and recommendations would be enough to improve conditions for the public in years to come.
“It’s about eliminating risk. You can never eliminate all risk, but we have to do everything we can. I can honestly say that we are in better shape today than we were at the time of the heat dome. Are we where we need to be? No, but we have a road map to get there.”
