The frequency of extreme heat events, such as the summer of 2003 in Europe, and their corresponding consequences for human beings are expected to increase under a warmer climate. The joint collaboration of institutional agencies and multidisciplinary approaches is essential for a successful development of heat-health warning systems and action plans which can reduce the impacts of extreme heat on the population. The present work constitutes a state-of-the-art review of 16 European heat-health warning systems and heat-health action plans, based on the existing literature, web search (over the National Meteorological Services websites) and questionnaires. The aim of this study is to pave the way for future heat-health warning systems, such as the one currently under development in the framework of the Horizon 2020 HEAT-SHIELD project. Some aspects are highlighted among the variety of examined European warning systems. The meteorological variables that trigger the warnings should present a clear link with the impact under consideration and should be chosen depending on the purpose and target of the warnings. Setting long-term planning actions as well as pre-alert levels might prevent and reduce damages due to heat. Finally, education and communication are key elements of the success of a warning system.

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Background Growing evidence indicates that the exposure to high heat levels in the workplace results in health problems in workers. A meta‐analysis was carried out to summarize the epidemiological evidence of the effects of heat exposure on the risk of occupational injuries. Methods A search strategy was conducted to retrieve studies on the effects of climate change on occupational injury risk. Among the 406 identified, 5 time‐series and 3 case‐crossover studies were selected for meta‐analysis. Results Pooled risk estimates for time‐series and case‐crossover studies combined, and then separated, were 1.005 (95%CI: 1.001‐1009), 1.002 (95%CI: 0.998‐1.005), and 1.014 (95%CI: 1.012‐1.017), respectively. Subgroup analyses found increased risks (not statistically significant) for male gender, age <25 years and agriculture. Conclusions The present findings can orient further research to assess the effects of heat at workplace and consequently to establish better health policies for managing such exposure in at‐risk regions.

Heatwaves (HWs) are one of the "natural" hazards with the greatest impact worldwide in terms of mortality and economic losses, and their effects may be exacerbated in large urban areas. For these reasons, more detailed analyses of urban HW trends represent a priority that cannot be neglected. In this study, HW trends were investigated during the warmest period of the year (May-September) by using a slightly improved version of the EuroHEAT HW definition applied on long meteorological time-series (36-year period, 1980-2015) collected by weather stations located in the capitals of the 28 European Union member countries. Comparisons between two 18-year sub-periods (1980-1997 vs. 1998-2015) were carried out and a city-specific HW hazard index (HWHI), accounting for the main HW characteristics, was proposed. Most of the capitals revealed significant positive trends of the majority of HW hazard characteristics and substantial HWHI increases were observed during the sub-period 1998-2015, especially in the central-eastern and southeastern cities. Conversely, minor HWHI increases were observed in most of the northern capitals and opposite situations were even observed in several northern and especially southwestern cities. The results of this study represent a support for planning urban HW-related mitigation and adaptation strategies with the priority given to the southeastern cities.