CORONERS ADD CLIMATE CORONARY TO CAUSE OF DEATH LIST

REWRITING HISTORY 85,000  AUSTRALIAN DEATH CERTIFICATES AT A TIME

National mortality records in Australia suggest substantial under-reporting of heat-related mortality. Less than 0·1% of 1·7 million deaths between 2006 and 2017 were attributed directly or indirectly to excessive natural heat (table). However, recent research1 indicates that official records underestimate the association at least 50-fold...

Given the unpredictable nature and global scale of climatic and other environmental events, such as the Australian heatwaves and bushfires of 2019–20, it is imperative that systems designed to monitor national mortality accurately reflect the impact of large-scale environmental events.

Combining death and temperature data sources to estimate temperature-related mortality or augment death certification data will improve the surveillance of heat-related mortality. However, for more than 2 billion people who live in tropical locations that are most vulnerable to heat, the resources required for valid mortality data are scarce.

Climate change is a concern to many people. But if the effect of extreme temperatures is not recorded, its full impact can never be understood. 

Death certification needs to be modernised, indirect causes should be reported, with all death certification prompting for external factors contributing to death, and these death data must be coupled with large-scale environmental datasets so that impact assessments can be done.

We declare no competing interests.