Fact check: throwing cold water on heat wave disinformation
An outdated air-conditioning law, a viral health myth about sleeping with the fan on and the age-old climate change hoax allegation: DW checked what's spreading
An outdated air-conditioning law, a viral health myth about sleeping with the fan on and the age-old climate change hoax allegation: DW checked what's spreading in Europe's heat wave. With temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week, much of Europe is in a heat-induced stupor. France received the worst of it, recording its highest-ever temperature on Tuesday, leaving thousands of homes without electricity. More than 55 people have drowned as residents have jumped in the water to try to cool down. Extreme weather typically brings a storm of disinformation with it; this heat wave is no different. The message "must connect to something people are directly affected by," Anna Siewiorek, Head of Climate Disinformation Resilience at the Climate&Strategy Foundation, told DW. "We feel the heat waves, we feel the storms or floods — and we're emotionally affected by it because we have economic fear, we fear about our loved ones, for the infrastructure we built and so on." DW Fact check took a look at some of these false and misleading claims. Here are the cold, hard facts. Spain's fake air-conditioning ban Claim: "Spain is banning people from setting their air-con below 27C," one user wrote in a post viewed more than 800,000 times. The claim that Spain is banning people from setting their air-con below 27C is false Image: X Fact check: False That claim is a screenshot of a Time Out headline written on August 3, 2022. At the time, the Spanish government temporarily set that rule in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis in 2022. The Spanish government limited the heating and cooling temperature to 19 and 27C.
The royal decree-law was only ever applied to public buildings and shops. It expired a year later. How Europeans cope with the record-breaking heat wave To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Other countries took similar steps at the time: Germany mandated that lights be switched off around monuments, France instituted fines if air-conditioned shops left their doors open, and Ireland handed out grants to insulate attics and cavity walls. Is sleeping with a fan on 'extremely dangerous?' Claim: "Sleeping with a fan on is extremely dangerous and most people do it every single night," wrote another user in a post viewed 1.7 million times. The post describes how a fan launches "a silent attack on your respiratory system," by evaporating moisture from your mouth and nose, drying out your eyes, and causing a stuffy nose or a "pounding headache." This viral post says you're under "silent attack" from your own bedroom breeze Image: X Fact check: Misleading It's true that fans can dry out the eyes, nose and mouth, but the claim is wildly overstated. The World Health Organization, theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in the US and the UK's Health Service all recommend using an electric fan during extreme heat. Peer-reviewed research backs this up. A 2019 sleep study published in Indoor Air found elderly participants slept just as well — measured by brain activity and stress hormones — with a ceiling fan at 30C as they did in an air-conditioned room at 27C. One team of researchers found that "the protective benefit of fans appears to be underestimated by current guidelines." Europe's extreme heat wave keeps smashing records To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The guidelines warn not to use a fan if the temperature is above a certain level — some say 35C, some say 40.
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