Last summer, the month of July was the hottest Montreal had experienced in 97 years and as the temperature and humidity skyrocketed during one of the worst heat waves in a century so did the number of heat-related deaths.

According to the Toronto Star, during the heat wave, Quebec’s hospitalizations almost doubled and deaths outside hospitals more than tripled. Public-health officials recorded almost 6,000 ambulance calls and sixty-six heat-related deaths in Montreal. Eighty-nine across Quebec.

Yet Zero in Ontario. Zero in Ottawa, where the temperature was almost identical, but according to the provincial coroner, no one died.

66 people died from heat in Montreal in the first week of July 2018

Some speculated that a lack of air conditioning caused more people to die in Quebec. Statistics Canada data seem to bear this out as fewer households in Quebec have air conditioning compared to Ontario.

But, Dr. David Kaiser, a preventive medicine specialist with Montreal public health, doesn’t accept air conditioning as the reason for the death discrepancy, he believes “It’s because of the way things are counted.”

Kaiser states that Montreal health-care workers are finding the kinds of heat-related deaths that are surely occurring in Ontario as well but remain hidden because no one is looking for them, “If you only count deaths by heat stroke, you’re missing the vast majority.”

So how does heat kill?

The first phase is heat exhaustion, a condition marked by heavy sweat, nausea, vomiting and even fainting. The pulse races, and the skin goes clammy

“In heat stroke, sweating stops and the skin becomes dry and flushed. The pulse is rapid. The person becomes delirious and may pass out. When trying to compensate for extreme heat, the body dilates the blood vessels in the skin in an attempt to cool the blood causing the gut to leak toxins into the body, cells begin to die, and a devastating inflammatory response can occur – everything breaks down.” Live Science

Read Diane Brouillet Story. Diane was one of 66 people who died from heat in Montreal in the first week of July 2018

Read the full feature HERE and the complete Toronto Star climate change series UNDENIABLE / CANADA’S CHANGING CLIMATE.

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