British report predicts deadly heat waves

LONDON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Heat waves and consequences of global climate change may kill 3,000 people in southeast England by 2017, a British Department of Health report said Tuesday.

The report gives a 25 percent chance of a severe heat wave occurring in the next decade. The report points to skin cancer, malaria and food poisoning as contributing to heat-related health issues, The Guardian said.

The report points to the 2003 heat wave in France that was responsible for the deaths of more than 14,000 people as evidence of the dire consequences of climate change.

"Though concentrations of a number of important pollutants are likely to decline over the next half-century, the concentration of ozone is likely to increase. This will increase attributable deaths and hospital admissions," the report said.

The Guardian said there is a slight chance malaria would return to southern England as infected strains of mosquitoes may return to the region's wetlands.

"Climate change is perhaps the most significant environmental problem which mankind will face in the coming century," said William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency.