Teal MP Sophie Scamps blasted over linking NRL player Keith Titmuss' death to climate change
Manly Sea Eagles player Titmuss, 20, suffered a seizure at an indoor workout session at the club's base on Sydney's Northern Beaches on November 23, 2020.
Titmuss was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney but died five hours later from cardiac arrest.
An inquest examining the death found the budding NRL player most likely suffered exertion heat stroke, although an autopsy was inconclusive.
At the Doctors for the Environment conference earlier this year, Scamps — an emergency doctor and GP who won the Sydney Northern Beaches seat of Mackellar at the last federal election — linked Titmuss' death to 'lethal humidity'.
'One of the things that really struck me, we've got this thing called lethal humidity now,' she said in a video posted to her YouTube account.
'With every rise of one degree in temperature, you have seven degrees increased per cent in humidity.
'So, the death of that young man — and I'm not saying — the death of the young man, the rugby league player, when it was 33C, a very humid day, died from heat stress, you know, after a training session.
'That type of lethal humidity is something that the medical fraternity is getting more and more concerned about.
'Apparently the human body can survive, if it's dry heat, up to 54C — that's pretty hot. But with high humidity that level comes down to kind of 33C, even 31C. So, it's something to consider.'
Titmuss' mother accused the MP of trying to use her son's death to score political points.
'I'm disappointed that (Scamps) is using my son's name to try to gain political points when all she needed to do was read (Coroner) Derek Lee's findings, which mention nothing about climate change,' Lafo Titmuss told The Australian.
'The whole family are annoyed they are using Keithy's death for political gain,' she later told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Apology now issued
Scamps told 2GB Sydney listeners on Wednesday morning she never intended to hurt the Titmuss family.
'Of course, if there's any distress or upset (I'm) deeply, deeply sorry,' she said.
'Our community was heartbroken for their family.'
She said her 'love and best wishes' and 'deep apologies' were with the family.
Host Ben Fordham asked why she decided to comment on the case of a patient she had never treated.
Scamps said she avoided naming Titmuss and was simply responding to a question.
'It was a Doctors for the Environment event and I could say that I didn't actually mention the young man by name, nor did I ever say that it was directly linked to climate change,' Scamps said.
'The question was 'what are doctors worried about with, you know, increasing temperatures' and there is a concern from doctors all around the world that not only have we had — we'll just go back a little bit, we had the hottest year on record last year, the second-hottest year the year before, and the last 10 hottest years have been in the last 10 years.
'Whatever we have, we have a warming climate. One of the concerns that doctors do have is not only the increasing heat but increasing humidity — and our bodies are unfortunately poorly adapted to dealing with increased humidity.'
This is impacting athletes worldwide, Scamps — herself a former runner who represented Australia in sprints and middle-distance events — said.
University of Sydney Heat and Health Research Centre began conducting a world-first study into predicting lethal humidity and associated excess mortality late last year.
Scamps' electorate of Mackellar — covering Northern Beaches suburbs from Dee Why to Palm Beach, including Narrabeen, Mona Vale, Avalon and Newport — is anticipated to be a key seat this federal election.
She won the seat at the last election, breaking a long history of Liberal Party representation.
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