While a temperature influence on male longevity is an important finding in itself, global environmental health professor Kirk Smith said temperature stress might impact humans in other ways more pertinent to public health in the face of climate change.

“We want to look and see if this population of kids born in times of temperature stress are themselves more sensitive to temperature, whether they have increased death rates later on in adulthood in reaction to temperature extremes, whether or not they were sensitized in the womb,” he said.

But the effect of climate change on the population depends on the way in which climate change occurs, he said.

“If (climate change) is a slow rising in temperature, you might expect the population to get used to it,” he said. “If it affects variations in temperature, then it could have an effect.”