Americans are dying from cold weather at more than twice the rate they did two decades ago, with new research revealing stark racial and economic disparities in who faces the highest risk of freezing to death.
Surge in Cold-Related Deaths
A total of 40,079 deaths were recorded from 1999 to 2022, with cold temperatures as either an underlying or contributing cause of death, according to a research letter published Dec. 19 in JAMA Network.
The authors of the letter, affiliated with Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to analyze death certificates….