Author: Caroline Hughes -
So almost all of us are back in Bath after a couple of weeks of over-eating, prolonged exposure to relatives and dreaming up wholly unachievable New Year’s resolutions. As the weather gets colder and we are no longer ensconced in wonderfully warm living rooms with copious amounts of mulled wine, you might be questioning how on earth you’re going to cope with the arctic conditions of your house share… Well, you’re not alone.
Cold homes are estimated to cost the NHS approximately £1.3 billion per year, mostly as a result of people suffering from respiratory and cardiovascular problems. With soaring energy prices, inefficient buildings and incomes rising slower than inflation, it is no wonder that an increasing number of people struggle to attain suitable indoor temperatures. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a minimum indoor temperature of 18˚C, which should be increased to 21˚C for children, disabled people and the elderly.
Unsurprisingly, cold homes have a more adverse effect on older people, whose bodies are less capable of trapping and retaining heat in comparison to a younger person. In the winter of 2014/15 there were 43,900 excess winter deaths (EWDs), 83% of which were people aged 75 and over. It is estimated that around 30% of EWDs are caused by cold homes, which results in over 8000 people dying unnecessarily each year. Shockingly, this is more than the number of people killed in road accidents, or through alcohol abuse.
So with this in mind, what is being done to prevent EWD’s? Well, Government initiatives such as the Energy Company Obligation (which requires energy companies to improve the energy efficiency of their most vulnerable customer’s homes), the Green Deal (which loaned money to homeowners for renewable energy sources) and more local Council led schemes, such as Warm Homes in BANES, all go some way to alleviating the problem, but the reality is that the direct and indirect effect of cold homes on health is not fully understood and further research is necessary to ensure this problem is prevented.
In the meantime, as we now know more about the impact of cold homes on health, I think it’s completely justifiable for us to hit the sales and buy some more clothes, purely in the interest of staying warm and healthy… right?!
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