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BMJ RESEARCH SHOWS NEED TO FIGHT FUEL POVERTY

11 Jan 2002

Friends of the Earth has welcomed research, published in today's British Medical Journal,which shows that excess winter deaths in Britain are due to cold weather, not illness (Excess Winter Mortality: Influenza or Cold Stress? BMJ Volume 324, pp 89-90). FOE says the findings reinforce the need for an effective national programme to fight fuel poverty through home insulation and other measures.

The researchers, including Professor Keating of Queen Mary's Westfield College, London,concluded that of 1,265 annual excess winter deaths per million over the last 10 years only 2.4% were due to influenza. The researchers conclude that with influenza causing such a small proportion of excess winter deaths, measures to reduce cold stress offer the greatest opportunities to reduce current levels of winter mortality.

FOE says that:

• The research is further clarification that cold weather kills - yet we know that millions of people cannot afford to keep their home warm in winter because the UK's housing is so badly insulated.
• The Warm Homes Act - originally drafted by FOE - has set a 15 year deadline for the Government to solve this problem once and for all.
• The Government is implementing this in a half-hearted way, designed to minimise the work they need to do. Their Fuel Poverty Strategy fiddled the definition of fuel poverty,so that it now doesn't guarantee help for over 1 million households in England alone formerly considered fuel poor. It also fails to meet the terms of the Act in that it does not set a date for the eradication of all fuel poverty - only that in "vulnerable" households (the old, children, long-term sick and disabled).

Commenting, FOE Parliamentary Co-ordinator Martyn Williams said:

"This research highlights once again the scandal of excess winter deaths in Britain.These are not primarily due to flu. They are a consequence of cold weather - and to the poor state of our housing stock compared to other European countries. The Government needs to strengthen its Fuel Poverty Strategy and set more ambitious targets, with the resources to back them up."

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