The warnings will be activated from 33.3 degrees in Palma and 34.8 degrees in the north and northeast of Mallorca.
The Epidemiology Service will disseminate the data to the public health and socio-health network to prevent heat stroke.
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Alerts depending on the temperatures in each area of the Balearic Islands
The Epidemiology Service of the Directorate General of Public Health has had a new system in place since Monday for issuing high-temperature alerts that include different values for different areas of Mallorca and the archipelago. Unlike before, when the alert was only activated when a temperature of 34.4 degrees was reached at Palma airport, six zones have now been established in Mallorca and one each for Eivissa Formentera and Menorca. Thus, while in the north and northeast of Mallorca, it will be activated from 34.8 degrees, in Palma it will be activated from 33.3 degrees.
Since 16 May, an information system has been in place, coordinated at the national level by the Centre for the Coordination of Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) and the National Epidemiology Centre, to establish preventive strategies in the face of a forecast period of high temperatures, to minimise the risks to health posed by exposure to these extreme heats.
The system involves receiving data on temperatures and associated mortality from different sources so that, in turn, the Epidemiology Service can forward them by e-mail to the different regional health and social-health care levels.
Since the start of the surveillance period, which began on 16 May, the Ministry of Health has provided maximum thresholds established for each region of the country. Thus, the Balearic Islands have set a maximum temperature of 33.3 degrees for the Palma-Airport Observatory; 33.9 degrees for the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range; 34.8 degrees for the north and northeast of Mallorca; 35.9 degrees for the interior of the island; 34.4 degrees for the south; and 34.3 degrees for the east of Mallorca. In Eivissa and Formentera, the maximum threshold has been set at 33.1 degrees and in Menorca at 32.2.
Based on these thresholds, the temperature excesses forecast for the day and the next four days will be defined, as well as the actual records recorded the previous day. This plan will be in force until 30 September, although it is foreseen that it may be maintained until 15 October if the high temperatures persist.
Public Health welcomes this new zoning, which will allow the adoption of surveillance and risk measures specific to each area of this autonomous community, preventing the risks to the population associated with exposure to high temperatures.
The threshold temperatures for health impact due to high temperatures have been calculated by analysing the association between time series of mortality and temperature at the provincial level.
During the past year, 25 possible cases of heat stroke were reported, of which only three were finally confirmed: two in Mallorca and one in Formentera. Two of those affected were in their fifties and the other in his twenties. One was working in the fields, another in a kitchen and the third was doing physical activity. Since 2004, when this surveillance system was launched, 122 possible cases have been reported, of which 53 were confirmed. Of the latter, ten succeeded.
Sources from the Epidemiology Service have detailed that, during last summer, alerts were activated for fifteen days in July and August. Thirteen of them were level 1 (yellow, low risk) and two were level 2 (orange, medium risk).
The elderly and children are the groups most sensitive to these changes in temperature. The former have a reduced sensation of heat and, therefore, a reduced capacity to protect themselves, and there is a parallel between the reduced perception of thirst and the perception of heat, especially when they suffer from neurodegenerative diseases.