Severe cold and heat are disproportionately killing Black Virginians compared to their white counterparts, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Virginia analyzed 16 years of mortality data from the state health department.
Pamela DeGuzman, an associate professor with the School of Nursing, said the team wasn’t originally focused on race. But a clear pattern emerged.
“In both cases, at both heat and cold extremes, the likelihood of Black people dying was higher than the likelihood of white people dying in Virginia,” DeGuzman said.
Other racial groups were not included in the study because of data limitations, she said.
Researchers looked at more than 985,000 deaths that happened between 2005 and 2020. Using federal weather data, they then homed in on those that occurred on or soon after particularly hot and cold days of the year.
Black people had an elevated risk of dying during heat events, compared to white people, when minimum daily temperatures stretched above 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
But the disparity was more pronounced in cold weather. As temperatures dropped, the gap between races tended to widen, researchers wrote.
When temperatures reached the low teens, Black people faced more than three times the risk of dying.
Exposure to heat or cold can kill people in several different ways, often exacerbated by underlying health issues.
Heat can decrease blood pressure and lead to heart attacks, for example, or cause organ failure, especially kidneys from dehydration.
During extreme cold, people can contract hypothermia and are more likely to die from respiratory infections. Freezing weather can trigger heart attacks by constricting blood vessels.
This January, officials with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said they were seeing an increase in emergency visits statewide for hypothermia and cold exposure.
Affected people don’t always die on the day of an extreme weather event. DeGuzman said the UVA team found a notable racial difference in the lag time of health impacts.
Black mortality was impacted for about two weeks after a cold snap, compared to five days for white people.
Extreme heat and cold kill more Americans annually than any other weather events. Federal agencies offer conflicting reports on which is the top killer. But recent research by the Yale School of Public Health, based on two decades of death records from every U.S. county, confirms it’s cold, with more than 40,000 cases per year.
Deaths linked to heat exposure are growing more quickly, however, doubling between the 2000s and 2010s, compared to a 7% jump in cold mortality, according to Yale.
DeGuzman said heat has also gotten more public attention in recent years, so policymakers might be less aware of the high cold risk.
The research did not study the reasons behind the racial disparity. But DeGuzman suspects housing plays a big role.
Black Virginians are more likely to live in neighborhoods that were historically neglected, and that extends to heating and cooling systems. Through the practice known as redlining, for example, banks and government agencies systematically denied loans and mortgages in majority-Black communities.
“We have a history of redlining in Virginia and that impacts where people live, the conditions that they're living in,” DeGuzman said. “HVAC systems aren't as up to date. They're not as efficient, so they're more costly to run, or maybe things are broken and they can't afford to get it fixed.”
Virginians just had an especially cold and expensive winter, she noted.
“Some people just couldn't afford to crank their heat up or crank it up enough, and so people are at risk of dying.”
Black employees nationwide are also more likely to have to work outside the home, the study stated.
DeGuzman hopes state leaders use the information to design policies that protect all Virginians.
The General Assembly recently passed legislation that will create the state’s first regulations protecting workers from heat stress, for example.
She said once measures are in place, officials should also go back and measure whether they’re working.
