25,535 excess UK deaths due to cold in 2011-2012 winter, commenter suggests problem won't be solved until dampness of climate is considered along with cold temperatures

11/22/13, "How winter kills more people in Britain ‘than in -30C Sweden’," metro.co.uk, Hayden Smith
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"The cold claims more lives in Britain than in Sweden, where temperatures regularly plunge as low as -30C (-22F) in winter, campaigners say.

There were 25,535 ‘excess winter deaths’ – people who died as a direct result of the cold – in Britain in 2011-12, compared with 3,385 in Sweden, it was claimed.

Taking into account Britain’s higher population, EWDs accounted for 4.61 per cent of all fatalities in this country, compared with 3.76 per cent in Sweden, according to fuel poverty campaign group the Energy Bill Revolution.

Britain was labelled the ‘cold man of Europe’ by the group, which blamed its findings on ‘appallingly’ insulated homes.

Sweden suffers particularly harsh winters, especially in the north, where snow can lie for up to 120 days and the mercury can fall to -53C (-63.4F). Before winter had fully taken hold yesterday, temperatures in the northern city of Luleå plunged to -8C (17.6F).

Energy Bill Revolution director Ed Matthew said: ‘It is a national disgrace that thousands of people are dying unnecessarily every year, lives that could be saved by something as simple as better insulation.

‘That more people die from the cold every year in temperate Britain than in freezing Sweden is an embarrassment and a tragedy.’

Mr Matthew claimed millions of British families lived in homes with leaking roofs, damp walls or rotting windows– a rate almost twice as high as that of Sweden.

He called on George Osborne to ‘solve the problem once and for all’ by increasing funding for energy efficiency in his autumn statement next month." via Free Rep.

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Commenter notes it's extremely damp in the UK, the combination of cold and damp
makes UK conditions worse, other problems stem from this including rotting wood in buildings:
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"Patrick R. Mc Manus · London, United Kingdom

Please take into account the huge humidity factor when writing such articles. The UK has some of the harshest weather in the world. -30 and dry in Sweden cannot be compared with +1, damp and draughty here. If one is cold and damp then that's arguably worse since the skin has to cook off the humidity, that's how sweating works. Add the wind chill to the scenario and you've got extreme cold - not in temperature but the effect it has on the body. The rain/dampness then causes problems such as leaks and rotting in buildings much more often than in drier climes. Until we stop measuring "coldness" by temperature alone we will never realise how cold the UK really is and hence will be unable to protect our people properly. Arguably in terms of fatalities, it's colder here and that's a fact as this article correctly quotes. It's just a different type of cold which is much harder to deal with. It's harder to build for, harder to repair under (waiting for a dry day) and difficult to dress for since it's a more rapidly changing and dynamic winter than elsewhere as the humidity and wind chill factors vary requiring layers to be worn due to such unpredictability.

· November 22 at 11:37am"

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