Extreme heat has major health impacts
As energy curtailment season continues, LiveGreen offers information on heat-related concerns.
Last month, the UNMC College of Public Health’s Climate and Health Program hosted a webinar to inform health care providers of the impacts of extreme heat on human health for Nebraska communities.
Topics included how heat alerts are handled, current trends in heat-related illnesses, populations at higher risk and treatment of these illnesses. This webinar was timely, as the medical center is now in the energy curtailment season and has curtailed once this summer already.
Extreme heat: what is it?
In most of the United States, temperatures above 90°F can typically be described as extreme heat. Extreme heat is usually expressed with a measurement of the heat index, which accounts for humidity and air temperature. It also is consistently ranked as the deadliest type of extreme weather in the United States.
How does extreme heat impact human health, and how can we stay safe?
Extreme heat is not just an inconvenience. Rather, it has significant implications for human health and wellbeing. When the body is unable to cool itself, there is the danger of illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Some populations are at a greater risk of these illnesses, including the elderly, young children, those with mental illnesses or chronic diseases, outdoor workers and members of low-income communities.
According to Chris Dethlefs, MD, a resident in the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine, the most effective management strategy for a heat-related illness is to cool off the body as quickly as possible by submerging in an ice bath. To avoid serious health impacts, the goal is to lower the core body temperature to below 104°F in less than 30 minutes.
How does sustainability interact with heat and health?
Of the connection between sustainability efforts and patient outcomes in the face of extreme heat, Dr. Dethlefs said:
“As our communities face increasingly intense heat stress and its acute and chronic impacts on health, we at UNMC are well positioned to help build adaptive capacity in our city through direct patient care, anticipatory education and resource coordination.
“This begins in part with advancing sustainability measures within our own institution. Adaptability and sustainability are fundamentally intertwined in the face of environmental pressures such as extreme heat, and they will be essential qualities for UNMC to continue supporting the health of our communities in our changing climate. Many students, faculty, and staff are actively making strides towards this goal, thereby shaping the med center itself into a more resilient agent for change”.
To learn more about heat-related illnesses, who is most at risk, and how to prepare for the increasing prevalence of extreme heat events, you can read the booklet produced by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
For another resource on heat-related illness, including to read in more detail about how some people have more difficulty in extreme heat than others, members of the medical center community can check out Nebraska Medicine NOW’s article, “How does excessive heat affect the body?”.
