Indoor heat a danger to poor households: Study

Heat advisories often tell people to stay indoors in peak summer. But that advice may not work for poor households, a new study suggests. Analysing data from low-income homes across the subcontinent, researchers found indoor temperatures were often higher than outdoor temperatures in summer in both rural and urban areas, reports Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar.
Indoor heat was influenced by roofing material, with tin-roof homes seeing some of the highest temperatures, the study found. In rural Yavatmal in Maharashtra, for instance, tin-roof homes were 3-4 degrees C higher than outdoors in the summer of 2016, according to research by Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR). In Delhi, tinroof homes were found to be almost 2 degrees C warmer than outdoors.