Health Minister praises HSC staff commitment as encompass data shows scale of daily patient care - Department of Health

Europe is the fastest warming continent on Earth with increasingly frequent, severe and prolonged periods of extreme heat. Climate projections indicate that this trend is also likely to continue in the future. Addressing the health impacts of this phenomenon, the Health Security Committee adopted an opinion on 30 July outlining existing EU support measures and recommendations for heatwaves. The adoption of this opinion is particularly timely given that summer travel and public gatherings increase cross-border risks to health. According to preliminary data, the heatwave at the end of June 2026 was associated with more than 16 000 excess deaths, based on national mortality statistics and published by EuroMOMO. In addition to increased mortality, prolonged periods of extreme heat can also exacerbate underlying conditions and illnesses, put additional pressure on healthcare systems and significantly increase the risk of wildfires, with consequential impacts on health, air quality, critical infrastructure and the environment.

Children who eat more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) show stronger responses in the brain's reward network when viewing images of appetizing foods-and these brain responses are linked to increases in body fat one year later. The findings, just published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that the brain may become more sensitive to food cues when children consume more UPFs. UPFs are manufactured food products-such as breakfast cereals, packaged bread and instant soups-that are designed to be highly palatable, convenient and shelf-stable. They often contain artificial sweeteners, colors and other ingredients that people do not typically use when cooking at home. On average, U. S. children get about 67% of their daily calories from UPFs.