Climate change has been blamed for a rise in alcohol and drug abuse.
A team of experts at Columbia University analyzed hospital rates in New York from 1995 to 2014 and spotted an increase when temperatures were warmer.
The researchers believe that booze-related visits are driven by people’s tendencies to drink lots in pleasant outdoor weather as well as the fact that they sweat more, leading to dehydration.
Higher temperatures also resulted in more hospital visits for other drug use – including cannabis and cocaine.
The scientists noted that the link may even have been underestimated as the most severe disorders could have resulted in deaths before a hospital visit was possible.
The study’s senior author Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou said: “Public health interventions that broadly target alcohol and substance disorders in warmer weather – for example, targeted messaging on the risks of their consumption during warmer weather – should be a public health priority.”
