Forensic science reports more deaths in Australia than Sweden due to cold

International medical comparisons are fraught with the difficulty/impossibility of checking that diagnostic criteria are near-enough identical. So I say “Pah!”, though I must admit that I haven’t lived in Sweden.

ghl said @ur momisugly February 12, 2014 at 11:40 am

South Australia has the most wind farms and the most expensive electricity of all australian states.

The Gits’ electrickery bill for the last quarter was $512.06 for 1,492 kWh (95 days). In SA it would have been $531.79, but you get an 11% discount for paying before due, or $473.29. So here in Tasmania it cost us $5.39/day compared to SA where the same consumption would have cost us $4.98/day. What makes you think $4.98 is more than $5.39? When The Git went to school $5.39 was 28% greater than $4.98!

Jimbo said @ur momisugly February 12, 2014 at 1:23 pm

Small nit pick triple glazing is common in many homes Sweden and Norway.

Double-glazing is more than good enough in most of Australia. The Git’s world-famous House of Steel is double-glazed, super-sealed and well-insulated. That’s why our electrickery consumption is less than for a small one-person household even though it’s a medium-sized, two-person household.

Can’t say I saw that one coming…

“The study, by a team from the University’s School of Medical Sciences, analyzed forensic cases of hypothermia deaths from 2006-2011 in both South Australia and Sweden.”
The timing of this study just happens to be when electricity prices almost doubled in South Australia. Little wonder their are more deaths. Little old ladies on fixed incomes would find it difficult to afford those increases, cut back on their heating. Refer to the last graph on the link.
http://eyesonbrowne.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/why-we-have-to-pay-so-much-for-electricity/

It really isn’t all that surprising, the people in Sweden are used to dealing with cold and houses are built with the cold in mind.
Here in the states, everytime it gets cold, there are always messages going out to check on elderly neighbors to make sure they are alright. I’m sure something similar happens in Sweden as well.

Eric Worrall said @ur momisugly February 12, 2014 at 2:40 pm

Try to sleep overnight in the cool southern states, in any Aussie house built in the 1930s and you will freeze your nuts off. Why? Because houses built in the 1930s were designed for a much warmer climate.

Don’t forget the cheapest form of insulation back then was firewood. In Sunbury, Victoria in 1965 my dad’s false teeth froze in the mug he’d put them in to soak. That never happened in UKLand even during The Big Freeze in 1962/3.
My neighbour Porky Hay used to sleep on the verandah year round because he said it was too hot to sleep indoors. Temperatures occasionally dip to -5°C here in Southern Tasmania. I never saw Porky wearing anything other than a blue singlet to keep his trunk warm even on the coldest days. How he managed cutting cane in Queensland I’ll never know.

““Most of the deaths from hypothermia in South Australia involved elderly women indoors who were living alone, often with multiple underlying illnesses and limited contact with the outside world. Many of them had been dead for at least a day before they were discovered,” Professor Byard says.”
Whether or not it’s because houses, etc. were not built with enough insulation, one thing this makes me think of (in this time of the Beatles’ 50th anniversary or whatever), is Eleanor Rigby. Note that they speak of “elderly women…living alone….limited contact”.
Folks, whether it’s family or not, if you know someone who’s alone or mostly alone, give them a call now and then, see if they’re warm (or cool in the summer), and OK.
You might very well save someone’s life…

Well I’m not sure of this. My house is brick and tile, on a concrete slab, and with roof insulation.
But although I have ducted oil heating, I refuse to use it. But we use the winter sun to warm rooms and have just a few small electric fires if it gets very cold. Mainly only for guests who come from Queensland and Sydney. My son and I don warm clothes, and my whippet has a sheepskin coat for winter indoors. As we live on the Northern Tablelands of NSW, our temps are cooler and colder than Tamworth down the hill. At present my thermometer is registering 27 C inside and we have the back door open. In winter the same room drops to sometimes 8 C at night and I have to watch the welfare of my bonsai and indoor plants.But generally it stays around 12 C sometimes when no sun 10C. But we have acclimatized and are not ‘hot house flowers’ . SA is a hot and humid state but we are on a plateau 3,500 ft above sea level in parts, sometimes higher further north of the region. We occasionally get snow but we haven’t seen that for some years other than a shower of it or two. But I will admit some of our pensioners go to bed with an electric blanket to watch TV in winter, as they can’t afford heating. But generally we have welfare groups that will keep an eye on them, I recall that Sweden has very cold weather but their houses have central heating and a friend has just been to UK and Europe and said, it was not too cold, as all buildings and buses etc., are warm. So horses for courses, I have been lobbying for heating subsidies like in UK for pensioners but no avail yet, as only some parts of Australia get minus C in winter. PS. Even though it is hot here and very dry, I sometimes still put my electric blanket on at night. Because after sunset the temps do drop to sometimes 10C even in the summer because of our elevation.

Why is that a surprise in the United States the majority of hypothermia deaths come from the southern states not the northern. That been know for years, yes I was surprised when i first heard about it but as I though about it it mad perfect sense. To coin the phrase cotton the silent killer, I only had to wear my cotton thermals once after using polypropylene ice fishing to permanently retire the cotton thermals.