Lack of central air conditioning linked to minority deaths

May 23 2005

A lack of central air conditioning may help explain why heat-related deaths are more common in black urban households than in white ones, according to a new study.

In their study of heat-related deaths in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh between 1986 and 1993, Marie O’Neill, Ph.D., and colleagues found that white households were more than twice as likely as black households to have central air conditioning.

The percentage of heat-related deaths in the cities was 5 percent higher among black households, compared to white households, found the study to be reported in the June issue of Journal of Urban Health, a quarterly publication of The New York Academy of Medicine.

The researchers, with the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan, calculated that as much as 64 percent of the difference between white and black heat death rates could be attributed to the lack of central air conditioning in black households.

The researchers found no consistent pattern between race and access to single-unit room air conditioners in the four cities.

A household’s access to central air conditioning “is likely correlated with other socioeconomic characteristics” such as income level and the availability of neighborhood services like shopping and health care that can also affect a person’s vulnerability to extreme heat, says O’Neill.

For instance, “During a 1995 heat wave in Chicago, social contacts, mobility, affordability of electricity and sense of personal security affected whether people had adequate ventilation and cooling in their homes,” she explains.

Among the cities included in the study, Pittsburgh had the lowest overall prevalence of central air conditioning at 25 percent of households surveyed, while Minnesota had the highest prevalence at 47 percent. The researchers found no consistent pattern between race and access to single unit room air conditioners in the four cities.

Using data from all four cities, O’Neill and colleagues calculated that each 10 percent increase in the prevalence of central air conditioning could produce a 1.4 percent drop in the number of heat-related deaths.

O’Neill says cities should recognize potential racial differences in the availability of central air conditioning when planning outreach programs that provide cool public spaces for residents, especially during the hottest summer months.

The last comprehensive national data review, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded that 8,015 Americans died as a result of extreme heat exposure between 1997 and 1999. During this period, more Americans died from extreme heat than from tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, floods and earthquakes combined, according to the CDC.

The O’Neill study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.