Europe is facing a heat wave that is intensifying
Context:
A severe heatwave is sweeping across Europe, prompting health alerts, travel disruptions, and emergency measures as extreme temperatures impact multiple countries.
Members of the media may directly contact the following experts:
Glen Kenny (English and French)
Full professor, Industry Research Chair (Heat Strain Monitoring and Management, University Research Chair (Exercise and Environmental Physiology), Faculty of Health Sciences
Professor Kenny's research is aimed at understanding the effects of extreme temperature events (e.g. heat waves) on human health and performance and the thermoregulatory consequences and limitations to physical activity or work performed in extreme environmental conditions.
“Extreme heat threatens the health of everyone, but especially the most vulnerable members of our communities; in the absence of adequate cooling, repeated days and nights of high heat can impose a cumulative physiological burden that progressively impairs the body's ability to recover, greatly increasing the risk of heat-related illness and death. --- or slightly more impactful…
Heatwaves pose a growing threat to public health because exposure to extreme heat outdoors and sustained overheating indoors can create a cumulative physiological strain that progressively erodes the body's ability to recover; while everyone is affected, the greatest risks are borne by older adults, people with chronic illness, and other vulnerable populations.”
For more, check out his latest study Staying cool during heat exposure.
Illimar Altosaar (English and French)
Full professor, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine
Professor Altosaar leverages his expertise in biochemistry and molecular biology to develop innovative breeding techniques and climate-smart crops designed to mitigate global warming and combat climate change.
“With 750 million people needing food across Europe, all that agricultural cropping currently consumes nitrogen fertilizer that mostly vapes off as the most radiative greenhouse gas, Nitrous Oxide, N2O. It is high time that European agronomists incorporate the detoxifying enzyme N2O-Reductase into their germplasm to mitigate global warming.”